title: Can awk patterns match multiple lines?
body: <p>I have some complex log files that I need to write some tools to process them. I have been playing with awk but I am not sure if awk is the right tool for this.</p>
  
  <p>My log files are print outs of OSPF protocol decodes which contain a text log of the various protocol pkts and their contents with their various protocol fields identified with their values. I want to process these files and print out only certain lines of the log that pertain to specific pkts. Each pkt log can consist of a varying number of lines for that pkt's entry.</p>
  
  <p>awk seems to be able to process a single line that matches a pattern. I can locate the desired pkt but then I need to match patterns in the lines that follow in order to determine if it is a pkt I want to print out. </p>
  
  <p>Another way to look at this is that I would want to isolate several lines in the log file and print out those lines that are the details of a particular pkt based on pattern matches on several lines. </p>
  
  <p>Since awk seems to be line-based, I am not sure if that would be the best tool to use.</p>
  
  <p>If awk can do this, how it is done?  If not, any suggestions on which tool to use for this?</p>