The AWK Programming Language[1] is a well-known 1988 book written by Alfred V. Aho, Brian W. Kernighan, and Peter J. Weinberger and published by Addison-Wesley, often referred to as the gray book.

[2] The book describes the AWK programming language and is the de facto standard for the language, written by its inventors.

[3] The book is translated to several languages and is cited by many technical papers in the ACM journals.

[4] According to the book's frontmatter the book was typeset "using an Autologic APS-5 phototypesetter and a DEC VAX 8550 running the 9th Edition of the UNIX operating system".

In September 2023, the second edition was published by Addison-Wesley,[5] along with an accompanying website.