LOOK(1) 							   User Commands							   LOOK(1)

NAME

       look - display lines beginning with a given string

SYNOPSIS

       look [options] string [file]

DESCRIPTION

       The  look  utility  displays  any  lines  in file which contain string.	As look performs a binary search, the lines in file must be sorted
       (where sort(1) got the same options -d and/or -f that look is invoked with).

       If file is not specified, the file /usr/share/dict/words is used, only alphanumeric characters are compared  and  the  case  of	alphabetic
       characters is ignored.

OPTIONS

       -a, --alternative
	      Use the alternative dictionary file.

       -d, --alphanum
	      Use normal dictionary character set and order, i.e. only alphanumeric characters are compared.  (This is on by default if no file is
	      specified.)

       -f, --ignore-case
	      Ignore the case of alphabetic characters.  (This is on by default if no file is specified.)

       -t, --terminate character
	      Specify a string termination character, i.e. only the characters in string up to and including the first occurrence of character are
	      compared.

       -h, --help
	      Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
	      Output version information and exit.

       The look utility exits 0 if one or more lines were found and displayed, 1 if no lines were found, and >1 if an error occurred.

EXAMPLE

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

FILES

       /usr/share/dict/words
	   the dictionary

       /usr/share/dict/web2
	   the alternative dictionary

SEE ALSO

       grep(1), sort(1)

COMPATIBILITY

       The  original  manual  page stated that tabs and blank characters participated in comparisons when the alphanum option was specified.  This
       was incorrect, and the current man page matches the historic implementation.

HISTORY

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

AVAILABILITY

       The look command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux							     June 2011								   LOOK(1)