By default, awk does not include the newline character in a record.

From the [POSIX standard for awk](http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/utilities/awk.html):

> Input shall be interpreted as a sequence of records. By default, a record is a line, less its terminating <newline> 
> ... 
> String Functions 
> length[([s])]Return the length, in characters, of its argument taken as a string, or of the whole record, $0, if there is no argument.