If you’re using DamnSmallLinux etc I’d imagine you can package your own awk quite easily! Perl would require a lot more packages. But all you need to do is copy a couple binaries right?
Haven't used these distros since a decade or so ago.
Not sure why I'd have to package awk. Busybox's is probably sufficient for most uses, if the need ever arised, which I don't think it normally does when using these distros.