awk — Tutorials · VLSI Mentor

90Total chapters

14Modules

90Chapters live

14 / 14Active modules

VLSI reports, not generic awk

Every one-liner is anchored in a real EDA task — extracting slack from timing reports, counting UVM_ERROR, rolling up coverage, summarizing nightly regressions. No generic admin content.

Interview-ready depth

Tiered interview module plus per-chapter interview weighting — NF and fields, grep-vs-awk, timing-violation extraction, and the report-parsing questions actually asked of DV / STA / EDA-automation engineers.

Filter → extract → summarize

From the record/field/pattern→action mental model to slack extractors, UVM regression analyzers, coverage roll-ups, and nightly metrics tables — the full awk report-parsing loop a verification team owns.

awk Complete Curriculum

Your Learning Roadmap

90 chapters · 14 modules — four parts — awk taught from zero, awk as a programming language, awk on real semiconductor reports and logs, then complete engineering projects and mastery.

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Part I — AWK Foundations

awk taught from zero: why it exists, where it sits next to grep, sed and Python, the record/field execution model behind every one-liner, field and record separators, and patterns and regular expressions. No prior scripting experience assumed and no VLSI knowledge required.

Module 1

Introduction to AWK

1.1Why awk Exists 1.2awk in Semiconductor Workflows 1.3awk vs grep 1.4awk vs sed 1.5awk vs Python 1.6Your First awk Command

Module 2

Understanding the AWK Execution Model

2.1Records 2.2Fields 2.3Pattern-Action Processing 2.4BEGIN, END, and Execution Order

Module 3

Fields, Records, and Separators

3.1Positional Fields: $1, $2, $3 3.2NF and the Last Field: $NF 3.3Field Separators: FS and OFS 3.4Record Separators: RS and ORS 3.5Custom Delimiters 3.6Rebuilding Records

Module 4

Patterns, Conditions, and Regular Expressions

4.1Pattern Matching 4.2Comparison and Logical Operators 4.3Range Patterns 4.4Regular Expressions in awk 4.5match(), sub(), and gsub()4.6Conditional Filtering 4.7Filtering Real Logs and Reports

Part II — AWK Programming

awk as a small programming language: user and built-in variables, control flow, associative arrays, aggregation, user-defined functions, formatted and redirected output, multi-file processing — and the validation, numeric-conversion, portability and testing habits that make a script trustworthy on input nobody promised you.

Module 5

Variables, Operators, and Control Flow

5.1User-Defined Variables 5.2Built-In Variables 5.3Arithmetic and String Expressions 5.4if and else 5.5for and while Loops 5.6next and exit

Module 6

Arrays, Functions, and Aggregation

6.1Associative Arrays 6.2Frequency Counting 6.3Grouping Records 6.4Summary Calculations 6.5User-Defined Functions

Module 7

Input, Output, and Multi-File Processing

7.1print and printf 7.2Output Formatting 7.3Redirecting Output 7.4NR, FNR, and FILENAME 7.5Processing Multiple Input Files 7.6Writing CSV and TSV Output 7.7Output Ordering 7.8Merging Multiple Reports

Module 8

Writing Reliable AWK Scripts

8.1Script Files and the -f Option 8.2Passing Variables With -v 8.3Validating Input 8.4Missing and Empty Fields 8.5Numeric Conversion and Comparison 8.6POSIX awk, gawk, and Portability 8.7Testing an awk Script

Part III — Semiconductor Applications

Parts I and II applied to the files a chip engineer actually owns: simulation and UVM logs, timing and STA reports, synthesis area and coverage reports, and the Bash, Tcl and Python pipelines awk runs inside. Report wording is tool-specific, so every chapter says what it is assuming about the format.

Module 9

Simulation and UVM Log Analysis

9.1Understanding Simulation Logs 9.2Extracting UVM Messages 9.3Counting Warnings and Errors 9.4Grouping Errors for Triage 9.5Per-Test Summaries 9.6Regression Failure Analysis

Module 10

Timing and STA Report Analysis

10.1Understanding Timing Report Structure 10.2Extracting Startpoints and Endpoints 10.3Slack Extraction 10.4Setup and Hold Violations 10.5Worst Timing Paths 10.6Grouping Paths by Clock 10.7Parsing Multi-Line EDA Reports

Module 11

Synthesis and Coverage Report Analysis

11.1Area Reports 11.2Cell Counts 11.3Hierarchy Statistics 11.4Line Coverage 11.5Toggle Coverage 11.6FSM Coverage 11.7Functional Coverage 11.8Aggregating Coverage Metrics Correctly

Module 12

AWK in EDA Automation Pipelines

12.1awk Inside Bash Scripts 12.2grep and awk Pipelines 12.3find and Multi-File Processing 12.4Parsing Tcl-Generated Reports 12.5awk With Python 12.6Nightly Regression Automation

Part IV — Engineering Practice

Five complete awk scripts a verification or signoff team would keep in version control, then the mastery layer: debugging output that is wrong or empty, field, regex and malformed-input failures, performance and maintainability, a review checklist, and tiered reasoning-based interview problems.

Module 13

Real-World AWK Engineering Projects

13.1Project: UVM Regression Analyzer 13.2Project: Timing Violation Extractor 13.3Project: Coverage Summary Generator 13.4Project: Synthesis Area Analyzer 13.5Project: Regression Metrics Exporter

Module 14

AWK Debugging, Review, and Engineering Mastery

14.1Debugging Incorrect or Empty Output 14.2Field and Delimiter Problems 14.3Regular Expression Problems 14.4Handling Malformed Reports 14.5Performance and Maintainability 14.6Engineering Review Checklist 14.7Interview Problems: Beginner 14.8Interview Problems: Intermediate 14.9Interview Problems: Advanced