STRINGS(1)STRINGS(1)NAMEstrings - find printable strings in an object or binary file
SYNOPSISstrings [-a | -]
[-t format | -o] [-n number | -number] [-N name] [file]...
DESCRIPTION
The strings utility 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 character.
strings is useful for identifying random object files and many other
things.
By default, strings looks at program sections that are loaded in mem‐
ory. Program sections are identified by the section type SHT_PROGBITS.
Sections that are loaded in memory are identified by the section flag
SHF_ALLOC. Use elfdump(1) to display complete section information for
a file.
All sections can be inspected with the -a option. Individual sections
can be inspected with the -N option.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-a | −
Look everywhere in the file for strings.
-n number | -number
Use a number as the minimum string length rather
than the default, which is 4.
-N name
Look only in ELF section name. See elfdump(1).
Multiple -N options can be specified to inspect
multiple sections.
If the -a or -option is specified, all -N
options are ignored .
-o
Equivalent to -t d option.
-t format
Write each string preceded by its byte offset
from the start of the file. The format is depen‐
dent on the single character used as the format
option-argument:
d
The offset is written in decimal.
o
The offset is written in octal.
x
The offset is written in hexadecimal.
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
file
A path name of a regular file to be used as input. If no file
operand is specified, the strings utility reads from the stan‐
dard input.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of strings: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES‐
SAGES, and NLSPATH.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0
Successful completion.
>0
An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│CSI │ Enabled │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ See below. │
└────────────────────┴─────────────────┘
The strings utility, including all options except -N, are specified by
standards. See standards(5). The -N option is not currently specified
by any standard.
SEE ALSOelfdump(1), od(1), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)NOTES
The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.
For backwards compatibility, the options -a and − are interchangeable.
Apr 13, 2007 STRINGS(1)
