NAME
strings — find the printable strings in an object or other binary file
SYNOPSIS
strings
[-a]
[-t
format]
[-n
number]
[file] ...
Obsolescent
strings
[-a]
[-o]
[-
number]
[file] ...
DESCRIPTION
strings
looks for ASCII strings in a file. If no
file
is specified, standard input is used.
A string is any sequence of four or more printing characters
ending with a newline or null character.
strings
is useful for identifying random object files and many other things.
Options
strings
recognizes the following options:
- -a
By default,
strings
looks only in the initialized data space of object files
(as recognized by their magic numbers).
If this flag is used, the entire file is inspected.
This flag is always set if standard input is being read
or the file is not recognized as an object file.
For backward compatibility,
-
is understood as a synonym for
-a.
- -t format
Write each string preceded by its byte offset from the start of the file.
The format is dependent on the single character used as the
format
option-argument:
- d
The offset is written in decimal.
- o
The offset is written in octal.
- x
The offset is written in hexadecimal.
- -n number
Specify
number
as the minimum string length, rather than the default 4.
- -o
Each string is preceded by its offset in the file (in octal).
This option is obsolescent and is equivalent to specifying the
-t o
option.
- -number
Specify
number
as the minimum string length, rather than the default 4.
This option is obsolescent and is equivalent to using the
-n
number
option.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables
LC_CTYPE
determines the locale for the interpretation of text as single-
and/or multi-byte characters.
LC_MESSAGES
determines the language in which messages are displayed.
If
LC_CTYPE
or
LC_MESSAGES
is not specified in the environment or is set to
the empty string, the value of
LANG
is used as a default for each
unspecified or empty variable. If
LANG
is not specified or is
set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see
lang(5))
is used instead of
LANG.
NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogues for the processing of
LC_MESSAGES.
If any internationalization variable
contains an invalid setting,
strings
behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C".
See
environ(5).
WARNINGS
The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.
AUTHOR
strings
was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
strings: XPG4, POSIX.2
Printable version
