1LOOK(1)                          User Commands                         LOOK(1)
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NAME

6       look - display lines beginning with a given string
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SYNOPSIS

9       look [options] string [file]
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DESCRIPTION

12       The  look  utility displays any lines in file which contain string.  As
13       look performs a binary search, the lines in file must be sorted  (where
14       sort(1)  was  given  the same options -d and/or -f that look is invoked
15       with).
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17       If file is not specified, the file /usr/share/dict/words is used,  only
18       alphanumeric characters are compared and the case of alphabetic charac‐
19       ters is ignored.
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OPTIONS

22       -a, --alternative
23              Use the alternative dictionary file.
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25       -d, --alphanum
26              Use normal dictionary character set and order, i.e. only  blanks
27              and alphanumeric characters are compared.  This is on by default
28              if no file is specified.
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30              Note that blanks have been added to dictionary character set for
31              compatibility with sort -d command since version 2.28.
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33       -f, --ignore-case
34              Ignore the case of alphabetic characters.  This is on by default
35              if no file is specified.
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37       -t, --terminate character
38              Specify a string termination character, i.e. only the characters
39              in  string up to and including the first occurrence of character
40              are compared.
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42       -V, --version
43              Display version information and exit.
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45       -h, --help
46              Display help text and exit.
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48       The look utility exits 0 if one or more lines were found and displayed,
49       1 if no lines were found, and >1 if an error occurred.
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EXAMPLE

52              sort -d /etc/passwd -o /tmp/look.dict
53              look -t: root:foobar /tmp/look.dict
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ENVIRONMENT

56       WORDLIST
57              Path to a dictionary file.  The environment variable has greater
58              priority than the dictionary path defined in FILES segment.
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FILES

61       /usr/share/dict/words
62           the dictionary
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64       /usr/share/dict/web2
65           the alternative dictionary
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SEE ALSO

68       grep(1), sort(1)
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HISTORY

71       The look utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix.
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AVAILABILITY

74       The look command is part of the util-linux  package  and  is  available
75       from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
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79util-linux                         June 2011                           LOOK(1)