STRINGS

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: October 22, 1991
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

strings - find the printable strings in a object, or other binary, file

SYNOPSIS

strings [ - ] [ -a ] [ -o ] [ -number ] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

Strings looks for ASCII strings in a binary file or standard input. Strings is useful for identifying random object files and many other things. A string is any sequence of 4 (the default) or more printing characters ending with a newline or a null. Unless the - flag is given, strings looks in all sections of the object files except the (__TEXT,__text) section. If no files are specified standard input is read.

The options to strings(1) are:

-a: This option causes strings to look for strings in all sections of the object file (including the (__TEXT,__text) section.
-: This option causes strings to look for strings all bytes of the files (the default for non-object files).
-o: Preceded each string by its offset in the file (in decimal).
-number: The decimal number is used as the minimum string length rather than the default of 4.

BUGS

The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.