With regard to the reported AWK problem:

It looks like it was on purpose:  

In NEWS, toward the end of the list of enhancements for 2.15.6:

	Major enhancement: $0 and NF for last record read are now preserved
	into the END rule (io.c).

This, of course, is what I'm seeing.  Unfortunately, it breaks a lot of our 
scripts.

What is the policy on the gnu utilities?  Do I send-pr to NetBSD or
following the man page "send email to bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu, 
with  a  carbon  copy  to arnold@gnu.ai.mit.edu"?

--Terry