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STRINGS(1P)		   POSIX Programmer's Manual		   STRINGS(1P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the	 corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
       strings — find printable strings in files

SYNOPSIS
       strings [−a] [−t format] [−n number] [file...]

DESCRIPTION
       The strings utility shall look for printable strings in	regular	 files
       and shall write those strings to standard output. A printable string is
       any sequence of four (by default) or more printable  characters	termi‐
       nated  by  a  <newline>	or  NUL	 character. Additional implementation-
       defined strings may be written; see localedef.

       If the first argument is '−', the results are unspecified.

OPTIONS
       The strings utility shall conform to the	 Base  Definitions  volume  of
       POSIX.1‐2008,  Section  12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, except for the
       unspecified usage of '−'.

       The following options shall be supported:

       −a	 Scan files in their entirety. If −a is not specified,	it  is
		 implementation-defined	 what  portion of each file is scanned
		 for strings.

       −n number Specify the minimum string length, where the number  argument
		 is a positive decimal integer. The default shall be 4.

       −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.

OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:

       file	 A  pathname of a regular file to be used as input. If no file
		 operand is specified, the strings utility shall read from the
		 standard input.

STDIN
       See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES
       The  input  files  named by the utility arguments or the standard input
       shall be regular files of any format.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment  variables  shall  affect  the	 execution  of
       strings:

       LANG	 Provide  a  default  value for the internationalization vari‐
		 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions  vol‐
		 ume  of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
		 ables for the precedence  of  internationalization  variables
		 used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL	 If  set  to  a non-empty string value, override the values of
		 all the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE	 Determine the locale for the interpretation of	 sequences  of
		 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
		 opposed to  multi-byte	 characters  in	 arguments  and	 input
		 files) and to identify printable strings.

       LC_MESSAGES
		 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
		 and contents  of  diagnostic  messages	 written  to  standard
		 error.

       NLSPATH	 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
		 of LC_MESSAGES.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       Strings found shall be written to the standard output, one per line.

       When the −t option is not specified, the format of the output shall be:

	   "%s", <string>

       With the −t o option, the format of the output shall be:

	   "%o %s", <byte offset>, <string>

       With the −t x option, the format of the output shall be:

	   "%x %s", <byte offset>, <string>

       With the −t d option, the format of the output shall be:

	   "%d %s", <byte offset>, <string>

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

	0    Successful completion.

       >0    An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       By default the data area (as opposed to the text,  ``bss'',  or	header
       areas) of a binary executable file is scanned. Implementations document
       which areas are scanned.

       Some historical implementations do not require NUL or <newline>	termi‐
       nators  for  strings to permit those languages that do not use NUL as a
       string terminator to have their strings written.

EXAMPLES
       None.

RATIONALE
       Apart from rationalizing the option syntax and slight difficulties with
       object  and executable binary files, strings is specified to match his‐
       torical practice closely. The −a and  −n	 options  were	introduced  to
       replace	the non-conforming − and −number options. These options are no
       longer specified by POSIX.1‐2008 but may be present in some implementa‐
       tions.

       The  −o	option historically means different things on different imple‐
       mentations. Some use it to mean ``offset in decimal'', while others use
       it  as ``offset in octal''. Instead of trying to decide which way would
       be least objectionable, the −t option  was  added.  It  was  originally
       named  −O  to  mean  ``offset'', but was changed to −t to be consistent
       with od.

       The ISO C standard function isprint() is	 restricted  to	 a  domain  of
       unsigned char.  This volume of POSIX.1‐2008 requires implementations to
       write strings as defined by the current locale.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       localedef, nm

       The Base Definitions volume of  POSIX.1‐2008,  Chapter  8,  Environment
       Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

COPYRIGHT
       Portions	 of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating	System	Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
       cal  and	 Electronics  Engineers,  Inc  and  The	 Open Group.  (This is
       POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum	 1  applied.)  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the	referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
       files to man page format. To report such errors,	 see  https://www.ker‐
       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2013			   STRINGS(1P)
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