[awk] timestamp on 1st column January 29, 2016 |awk ' { print strftime("[%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S]", systime()),$0 } ' --------------- output example # echo aaaa |awk ' { print strftime("[%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S]", systime()),$0 } ' [2016-01-29 20:24:53] aaaa Read more