strings(1)
strings --
find printable strings in an object file or binary
Synopsis
strings [-a] [-o] [-n number |-number] [-t format] filename...
Description
The
strings
command looks for
ASCII
strings in a binary file.
A string is any sequence of 4 or more
printing characters ending with a
newline
or a
null
character.
strings
is useful for identifying random object files and many other things.
The following options are available:
- -a
-
Look everywhere in the file for strings.
If this flag is omitted,
strings
only looks in the initialized data space of object files.
- -o
-
Precede each string by its
offset in the file.
- -n number
-
Use
number
as the minimum string length rather than 4.
- -t format
-
Precede each string by its byte offset from the start of the file.
The byte offset is displayed in the format specified by the
single-character format argument: ``d'' for decimal, ``o''
for octal, and ``x'' for hexadecimal.
Options may be delimited by ``--'' where appropriate to avoid ambiguity.
References
od(1)
Notices
The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.
For backwards compatibility, -number
can be used in place of -n number.
Similarly, the -a and a - option are interchangeable.
The - and the -number variations
are obsolescent and may be removed in a future release.
30 January 1998
© 1998 The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. All rights reserved.