Multiple variables from file inside AWK

Question

I have a file named users.txt that contain a list of users in this format:

bob
john
alex
tom

I need to run this AWK statement and use each of those names as patterns and output to a file

awk '/PATTERN/{x=NR+6}(NR<=x){print}' input.txt >> output.txt

How do I make AWK loop through each name and use them as search patterns?

Example input file:

bob@servername
10/09/2018 19:11:19
50152 command issued.

  weid: A1Pz64385236
  job_name: xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
  command: fff-fff-fff-fff-
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
alex@servername
10/09/2018 16:33:55
50152 command issued.

  weid: A1Pz64385236
  job_name: xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
  command: fff-fff-fff-fff-
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
doug@servername
10/09/2018 13:22:66
50152 command issued.

  weid: A1Pz64385236
  job_name: xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
  command: fff-fff-fff-fff-
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::`

Output should be like this, only with users which are in the users.txt file (there are a lot more users in the input file which I don't want to see)

bob@servername
10/09/2018 19:11:19
50152 command issued.

  weid: A1Pz64385236
  job_name: xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
  command: fff-fff-fff-fff

Answer 1

While reading the first file, append each line to a pattern string, separating them with | . Then when processing the second file test the line against the pattern.

awk 'NR==FNR { pattern = pattern (pattern ? "|" : "") $0; next }
     $0 ~ pattern { x = FNR + 6 }
     FNR <= x' users.txt input.txt

I tested this on Mac OS High Sierra and Debian Linux with your sample files, the result was:

bob@servername
10/09/2018 19:11:19
50152 command issued.

  weid: A1Pz64385236
  job_name: xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
  command: fff-fff-fff-fff-
alex@servername
10/09/2018 16:33:55
50152 command issued.

  weid: A1Pz64385236
  job_name: xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
  command: fff-fff-fff-fff-

Answer 2

You can probably use grep too:

grep input -wf users -A 6

This will match the names from the users file to the input file and print 6 lines following the match. With the w flag grep will only match complete words, you can leave it out depending on your needs.

If your grep does not support -A , this may work:

grep input -wf users -n | cut -d: -f1 | xargs -n 1 -I {} sed -n "{},/^::*$/ p" input

or this:

grep input -wf users | xargs -n 1 -I {} sed -n "/{}/,/^::*$/ p" input