Gawk must be compiled -fwritable-strings (perhaps also -traditional)
if it is compiled with gcc.

diff -cr gawk-2.10/Makefile gawk-2.10.a/Makefile
*** gawk-2.10/Makefile	Mon Apr  3 22:10:18 1989
--- gawk-2.10.a/Makefile	Wed Apr 12 13:11:07 1989
***************
*** 39,52 ****
  DEBUG=#-DDEBUG #-DFUNC_TRACE -DMEMDEBUG
  DEBUGGER=#-g
  PROFILE=#-pg
! SYSV=
  BSD=#-DHASDOPRNT
  MEMCMP=#-DNOMEMCMP
  VPRINTF=#-DNOVPRINTF
    
  FLAGS= $(OPTIMIZE) $(SYSV) $(DEBUG) $(BSD) $(MEMCMP) $(VPRINTF)
  CFLAGS= $(FLAGS) $(DEBUGGER) $(PROFILE) 
  LDFLAGS= #-Bstatic
  
  SRC =	awk1.c awk2.c awk3.c awk4.c awk5.c \
  	awk6.c awk7.c awk8.c awk9.c version.c do_free.c awka.c
--- 39,54 ----
  DEBUG=#-DDEBUG #-DFUNC_TRACE -DMEMDEBUG
  DEBUGGER=#-g
  PROFILE=#-pg
! SYSV= -DUSG
  BSD=#-DHASDOPRNT
  MEMCMP=#-DNOMEMCMP
  VPRINTF=#-DNOVPRINTF
    
+ CC= gcc -fwritable-strings
  FLAGS= $(OPTIMIZE) $(SYSV) $(DEBUG) $(BSD) $(MEMCMP) $(VPRINTF)
  CFLAGS= $(FLAGS) $(DEBUGGER) $(PROFILE) 
  LDFLAGS= #-Bstatic
+ # a working alloca is in lizard
+ LDFLAGS= -lizard
  
  SRC =	awk1.c awk2.c awk3.c awk4.c awk5.c \
  	awk6.c awk7.c awk8.c awk9.c version.c do_free.c awka.c