title: What does ">!" do in bash or nawk?
body: <p>I am translating a GAWK script into a C# program and I don't know what part of the GAWK script means.  I've got the rest of the script figured out but I can't seem to find where to look for the rest of these commands.  </p>
  
  <p>I don't have an example of the other .tg files that its reading so I'm copying it blind and I need to get it right.</p>
  
  <p>These are the lines:</p>
  
  <pre><code>date +"Report prepared %a %b %e %T %Y" &gt;! $XTRAFILE
  set ntg=`awk '\!/^#/{if(NF)print}' *.tg ad_tgs | wc -l`
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Questions: </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Am I right in assuming that it puts the ">!" puts the "Report prepared" at the top of the $XTRAFILE?</p></li>
  <li><p>Also, I don't know what the "%a %b %e ..." is. </p></li>
  <li><p>Finally, is the line starting with "set ntg" counting the lines in the ad_tgs file?</p></li>
  </ol>