LOOK(1) BSD General Commands Manual LOOK(1)
NAME
look -- display lines beginning with a given string
SYNOPSIS
look [-dfa] [-t termchar] string [file]
DESCRIPTION
The look utility displays any lines in file which contain string as a prefix. 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 char-
acters is ignored.
Options:
-d Dictionary character set and order, i.e. only alphanumeric characters are compared.
-f Ignore the case of alphabetic characters.
-a Use the alternate dictionary /usr/share/dict/web2
-t Specify a string termination character, i.e. only the characters in string up to and including the first occurrence of termchar are
compared.
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.
FILES
/usr/share/dict/words the dictionary
/usr/share/dict/web2 the alternate dictionary
SEE ALSO
grep(1), sort(1)
COMPATIBILITY
The original manual page stated that tabs and blank characters participated in comparisons when the -d option was specified. This was incor-
rect and the current man page matches the historic implementation.
HISTORY
Look appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix.
BSD
June 14, 1993 BSD
