strings

 

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 User Commands                                          strings(1)
 
 
 


NAME
      strings - find printable strings in an object or binary file
 


SYNOPSIS
      strings [ -a | - ]  [  -t format  |  -o  ]   [  -n number  |
      -number ]  [ file ... ]
 


DESCRIPTION
      The strings utility looks for  ASCII  strings  in  a  binary
      file. A string is any sequence of 4 or more printing charac-
      ters ending with a newline or a null character.
 
      strings is useful for identifying random  object  files  and
      many other things.
 


OPTIONS
      The following options are supported:
 
      -a | -
            Look everywhere in the file for strings. If this  flag
            is omitted, strings only looks in the initialized data
            space of object files.
 
      -n number | -number
            Use a number as the minimum string length rather  than
            the default, which is 4.
 
      -o    Equivalent to -t d option.
 
      -t format
            Write each string preceded by its byte offset from the
            start of the file. The format is dependent on the sin-
            gle character used as the format option-argument:
 
            d     The offset will be written in decimal.
 
            o     The offset will be written in octal.
 
            x     The offset will be written in hexadecimal.
 
 


OPERANDS
      The following operand is supported:
 
      file  A path name of a regular file to be used as input.  If
            no file operand is specified, the strings utility will
            read from the standard input.
 
 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
      See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
      variables  that  affect  the execution of strings: LC_CTYPE,
      LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8           Last change: 20 Dec 1996                    1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 User Commands                                          strings(1)
 
 
 
 EXIT STATUS
      The following exit values are returned:
 
      0     Successful completion.
 
      >0    An error occurred.
 


ATTRIBUTES
      See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
      butes:
 
      ____________________________________________________________
     |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
     | Availability                | SUNWtoo                     |
     | CSI                         | Enabled                     |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
 
 


SEE ALSO
      od(1), attributes(5), environ(5)
 


NOTES
      The algorithm for identifying strings  is  extremely  primi-
      tive.
 
      For backwards compatibility, the options -a and - are inter-
      changeable.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8           Last change: 20 Dec 1996                    2
 
 
 

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