strings(1) - osol9

1strings(1)                       User Commands                      strings(1)
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NAME

6       strings - find printable strings in an object or binary file
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SYNOPSIS

9       strings [-a | -]
10            [-t format | -o] [-n number | -number]  [-N name]  [file]...
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DESCRIPTION

14       The  strings utility looks for ASCII strings in a binary file. A string
15       is any sequence of 4 or more printing characters ending with a  NEWLINE
16       or a NULL character.
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19       strings  is  useful  for identifying random object files and many other
20       things.
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23       By default, strings looks at program sections that are loaded  in  mem‐
24       ory.  Program sections are identified by the section type SHT_PROGBITS.
25       Sections that are loaded in memory are identified by the  section  flag
26       SHF_ALLOC.  Use elfdump(1)  to display complete section information for
27       a file.
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30       All sections can be inspected with the -a option.  Individual  sections
31       can be inspected with the -N option.
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OPTIONS

34       The following options are supported:
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36       -a | −                 Look everywhere in the file for strings.
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39       -n number | -number    Use a number as the minimum string length rather
40                              than the default, which is 4.
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43       -N name                Look only in ELF section name.  See  elfdump(1).
44                              Multiple  -N options can be specified to inspect
45                              multiple sections.
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47                              If the  -a  or  -option  is  specified,  all  -N
48                              options are ignored .
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51       -o                     Equivalent to -t d option.
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54       -t format              Write  each  string  preceded by its byte offset
55                              from the start of the file. The format is depen‐
56                              dent  on the single character used as the format
57                              option-argument:
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59                              d    The offset is written in decimal.
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62                              o    The offset is written in octal.
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65                              x    The offset is written in hexadecimal.
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OPERANDS

70       The following operand is supported:
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72       file    A path name of a regular file to be used as input. If  no  file
73               operand  is specified, the strings utility reads from the stan‐
74               dard input.
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ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

78       See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment  variables
79       that  affect  the execution of strings: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES‐
80       SAGES, and NLSPATH.
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EXIT STATUS

83       The following exit values are returned:
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85       0     Successful completion.
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88       >0    An error occurred.
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ATTRIBUTES

92       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
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97       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
98       │      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         │      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        │
99       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
100       │Availability                 │SUNWtoo                      │
101       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
102       │CSI                          │Enabled                      │
103       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
104       │Interface Stability          │See below.                   │
105       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
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108       The strings utility, including all options except -N, are specified  by
109       standards.  See  standards(5). The -N option is not currently specified
110       by any standard.
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NOTES

116       The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.
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119       For backwards compatibility, the options -a and − are interchangeable.
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123SunOS 5.11                        13 Apr 2007                       strings(1)