#! /usr/bin/awk -f function string( m ) { for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) { s = "abcdef" while (length( s ) <= m) { s = "123" s "456" s "789" s_length = length( s ) s = substr( s, s_length / 2 ) substr( s, 1, s_length / 2 ) } } return length( s ) } BEGIN { string( 500000 ) }