strings

STRINGS(1)                   GNU Development Tools                  STRINGS(1)



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

SYNOPSIS
       strings [-afovV] [-min-len]
               [-n min-len] [--bytes=min-len]
               [-t radix] [--radix=radix]
               [-e encoding] [--encoding=encoding]
               [-] [--all] [--print-file-name]
               [-T bfdname] [--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
       sections 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
           bigendian, L = 32-bit littleendian.  Useful for finding wide
           character strings. (l and b apply to, for example, Unicode
           UTF-16/UCS-2 encodings).

       -T bfdname
       --target=bfdname
           Specify an object code format other than your system's default
           format.

       -v
       -V
       --version
           Print the program version number on the standard output and exit.

       @file
           Read command-line options from file.  The options read are inserted
           in place of the original @file option.  If file does not exist, or
           cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not
           removed.

           Options in file are separated by whitespace.  A whitespace
           character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire
           option in either single or double quotes.  Any character (including
           a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be
           included with a backslash.  The file may itself contain additional
           @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.

SEE ALSO
       ar(1), nm(1), objdump(1), ranlib(1), readelf(1) and the Info entries
       for binutils.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
       2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 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 1.3 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-2.20                     2009-10-16                        STRINGS(1)