bsd man page for strings

STRINGS(1)						      General Commands Manual							STRINGS(1)

NAME
       strings - find the printable strings in a object, or other binary, file

SYNOPSIS
       strings [ - ] [ -o ] [ -number ] file ...

DESCRIPTION
       Strings	looks  for  ascii  strings in a binary file.  A string is any sequence of 4 or more printing characters ending with a newline or a
       null.  Unless the - flag is given, strings only looks in the initialized data space of object files.  If the -o flag is	given,	then  each
       string  is  preceded  by  its offset in the file (in octal).  If the -number flag is given then number is used as the minimum string length
       rather than 4.

       Strings is useful for identifying random object files and many other things.

SEE ALSO
       od(1)

BUGS
       The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.

3rd Berkeley Distribution					   May 12, 1986 							STRINGS(1)