$ awk -F":" '{ print "username: " $1 "\t\tuid:" $3" }' /etc/passwd awk: { print "username: " $1 "\t\tuid:" $3" } awk: ^ un

$ awk -F":" '{ print "username: " $1 "\t\tuid:" $3" }' /etc/passwd awk: { print "username: " $1 "\t\tuid:" $3" } awk: ^ unterminated string Needs to be $ awk -F":" '{ print "username: " $1 "\t\tuid:" $3 }' /etc/passwd