awk detector in makefile breaks check-size

[tdierks]

In message.mk line 12 by @fredizzimo there's a check for awk. On my Debian instance, this check fails and $(AWK) gets set to cat && test. This then breaks this use of awk in the rule.mk check-size target: rules.mk line 375.

The awk on my system is the default one in Debian:

$ awk -W version
mawk 1.3.3 Nov 1996, Copyright (C) Michael D. Brennan

compiled limits:
max NF             32767
sprintf buffer      2040

I don't know why the check on the version/type of awk is in message.mk, and I don't know a lot about awk portability, so I'm not sure if changing the check to work with mawk is right, getting rid of the check, or some other change.