In awk, FNR
refers to the record number (typically the line number) in the current file and NR
refers to the total record number. The operator ==
is a comparison operator, which returns true when the two surrounding operands are equal.
This means that the condition NR==FNR
is only true for the first file, as FNR
resets back to 1 for the first line of each file but NR
keeps on increasing.
This pattern is typically used to perform actions on only the first file. The next
inside the block means any further commands are skipped, so they are only run on files other than the first.
The condition FNR==NR
compares the same two operands as NR==FNR
, so it behaves in the same way.