freebsd man page for strings

STRINGS(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 						STRINGS(1)

NAME
     strings -- print the strings of printable characters in files

SYNOPSIS
     strings [-a | --all] [-e encoding | --encoding=encoding] [-f | --print-file-name] [-h | --help] [-n number | --bytes=number | -number] [-o]
	     [-t radix | --radix=radix] [-v | --version] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     For each file specified, the strings utility prints contiguous sequences of printable characters that are at least n characters long and are
     followed by an unprintable character.  The default value of n is 4.  By default, the strings utility only scans the initialized and loaded
     sections of ELF objects; for other file types, the entire file is scanned.  The strings utility is mainly used for determining the contents
     of non-text files.

     If no file name is specified as an argument, standard input is read.

     The following options are available:

     -a | --all
	     For ELF objects, scan the entire file for printable strings.

     -e encoding | --encoding=encoding
	     Select the character encoding to be used while searching for strings.  Valid values for argument encoding are:
	     s	     for single 7-bit-byte characters (ASCII, ISO 8859).
	     S	     for single 8-bit-byte characters.
	     l	     for 16-bit little-endian.
	     b	     for 16-bit big-endian.
	     L	     for 32-bit little-endian.
	     B	     for 32-bit big-endian.
	     The default is to assume that characters are encoded using a single 7-bit byte.

     -f | --print-file-name
	     Print the name of the file before each string.

     -h | --help
	     Print a usage summary and exit.

     -n number | --bytes=number | -number
	     Print the contiguous character sequence of at least number characters long, instead of the default of 4 characters.

     -o      Equivalent to specifying -t o.

     -t radix | --radix=radix
	     Print the offset from the start of the file before each string using the specified radix.	Valid values for argument radix are:
	     d	     for decimal
	     o	     for octal
	     x	     for hexadecimal

     -v | --version
	     Display a version identifier and exit.

EXIT STATUS
     The strings utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES
     To display strings in /bin/ls use:
	   $ strings /bin/ls

     To display strings in all sections of /bin/ln use:
	   $ strings -a /bin/ln

     To display strings in all sections of /bin/cat prefixed with the filename and the offset within the file use:
	   $ strings -a -f -t x /bin/cat

SEE ALSO
     ar(1), nm(1), objdump(1), ranlib, readelf(1), size(1)

HISTORY
     The first FreeBSD strings utility appeared in FreeBSD v3. It was later discontinued in FreeBSD v5, when i386-only a.out format was dropped in
     favor of ELF.

AUTHORS
     The strings utility was re-written by S.Sam Arun Raj <samarunraj@gmail.com>.  This manual page was written by S.Sam Arun Raj
     <samarunraj@gmail.com>.

BSD
								 December 19, 2011							       BSD