awk bug (or is it a feature)

[gwyn at brl-smoke.UUCP]

In article <800 at brahma.cs.hw.AC.UK> pjbk at cs.hw.ac.uk (Peter King) writes:
>The file below will pass the standard input through unmodified,
>although it is designed to replace the last field in each record
>with "LAST FIELD".  Is this a bug or a feature?
> { $NF = "LAST FIELD"
> print}

Must be a bug; it works here (SVR2 + bug fixes).
Make sure the shell does not mess with the special characters
(enclose the whole expression in 'quotes').