diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 785f4186dea3deac2ae768331ce119565a1c8dad..ee0deb4f8519ec6b897dd406488b4bacf8afec87 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ install:
   - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "osx" ]] && test -z "$PLUMED_MACPORTS" ; then brew update > /dev/null ; fi
   - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "linux" ]]; then sudo apt-get update -qq ; fi
 # install some package - these are fast, we install them anyway
-  - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "linux" ]]; then sudo apt-get install -y libmatheval-dev libfftw3-dev gsl-bin libgsl0-dev ; fi
+  - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "linux" ]]; then sudo apt-get install -y libmatheval-dev libfftw3-dev gsl-bin libgsl0-dev gawk ; fi
   - if test "$PLUMED_CXX" ; then ./.travis/install.xdrfile ; fi
 # cppcheck:
 # I use 1.71 since 1.72 seems to report a lot of false positive