STRINGS(1) General Commands Manual STRINGS(1)NAME
strings - find the printable strings in a object, or other binary, file
SYNOPSIS
strings [ - ] [ -a ] [ -o ] [ -t format ] [ -number ] [ -n 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 file arguments may be of the form libx.a(foo.o), to request information about only that object file and not the entire library. (Typ-
ically this argument must be quoted, ``libx.a(foo.o)'', to get it past the shell.)
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 in all bytes of the files (the default for non-object files).
-- This option causes strings to treat all the following arguments as files.
-o Preceded each string by its offset in the file (in decimal).
-t format
Write each string preceded by its byte offset from the start of the file. The format shall be dependent on the single character
used as the format option-argument:
d The offset shall be written in decimal.
o The offset shall be written in octal.
x The offset shall be written in hexadecimal.
-number
The decimal number is used as the minimum string length rather than the default of 4.
-n number
Specify the minimum string length, where the number argument is a positive decimal integer. The default shall be 4.
-arch arch_type
Specifies the architecture, arch_type, of the file for strings(1) to operate on when the file is a universal file. (See arch(3) for
the currently know arch_types.) The arch_type can be "all" to operate on all architectures in the file, which is the default.
SEE ALSO od(1)BUGS
The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.
Apple Computer, Inc. September 11, 2006 STRINGS(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
STRINGS(1) GNU Development Tools STRINGS(1)NAME
strings - print the strings of printable characters in files.
SYNOPSIS
strings [-afov] [-min-len]
[-n min-len] [--bytes=min-len]
[-t radix] [--radix=radix]
[-e encoding] [--encoding=encoding]
[-] [--all] [--print-file-name]
[--target=bfdname]
[--help] [--version] file...
DESCRIPTION
For each file given, GNU strings prints the printable character sequences that are at least 4 characters long (or the number given with the
options below) and are followed by an unprintable character. By default, it only prints the strings from the initialized and loaded sec-
tions of object files; for other types of files, it prints the strings from the whole file.
strings is mainly useful for determining the contents of non-text files.
OPTIONS -a
--all
- Do not scan only the initialized and loaded sections of object files; scan the whole files.
-f
--print-file-name
Print the name of the file before each string.
--help
Print a summary of the program usage on the standard output and exit.
-min-len
-n min-len
--bytes=min-len
Print sequences of characters that are at least min-len characters long, instead of the default 4.
-o Like -t o. Some other versions of strings have -o act like -t d instead. Since we can not be compatible with both ways, we simply
chose one.
-t radix
--radix=radix
Print the offset within the file before each string. The single character argument specifies the radix of the offset---o for octal, x
for hexadecimal, or d for decimal.
-e encoding
--encoding=encoding
Select the character encoding of the strings that are to be found. Possible values for encoding are: s = single-7-bit-byte characters
(ASCII, ISO 8859, etc., default), S = single-8-bit-byte characters, b = 16-bit bigendian, l = 16-bit littleendian, B = 32-bit bigen-
dian, L = 32-bit littleendian. Useful for finding wide character strings.
--target=bfdname
Specify an object code format other than your system's default format.
-v
--version
Print the program version number on the standard output and exit.
SEE ALSO ar(1), nm(1), objdump(1), ranlib(1), readelf(1) and the Info entries for binutils.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
binutils-2.13.90.0.18 2003-02-24 STRINGS(1)