this is what I meant (make df work on raw disks, remove other compat stuff)
[unix-history] / usr / src / usr.bin / strings / strings.1
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1.\" Copyright (c) 1980 The Regents of the University of California.
2.\" All rights reserved.
3a1a282a 3.\"
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4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
5.\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
6.\" duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
7.\" advertising materials, and other materials related to such
8.\" distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
9.\" by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the
10.\" University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived
11.\" from this software without specific prior written permission.
12.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
13.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
14.\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
15.\"
61539330 16.\" @(#)strings.1 6.6 (Berkeley) %G%
3a1a282a 17.\"
fdb732b2 18.TH STRINGS 1 ""
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19.UC
20.SH NAME
e8d9c970 21strings \- find the printable strings in a file
3a1a282a 22.SH SYNOPSIS
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23.ft B
24strings [ \-ao ] [ \-n number ] [ file ... ]
25.ft R
3a1a282a 26.SH DESCRIPTION
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27.I String
28displays the sequences of printable characters in each of the specified
29files, or in the standard input, by default.
30By default, a sequence must be at least four characters in length
31before being displayed.
3a1a282a 32.PP
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33The options are as follows:
34.TP
35\-a
36By default,
37.I strings
38only searches the initialized data space of object files.
39The
40.I \-a
41option causes
42.I strings
43to search the entire object file.
44.TP
45\-n
46Specifies the minimum number of characters in a sequence to be
47.IR number ,
48instead of four.
49.TP
50\-o
51The
52.I \-o
53option causes each string to be preceded by its decimal offset in the
54file.
55.PP
56.I Strings
57is useful for identifying random binaries, among other things.
3a1a282a 58.SH "SEE ALSO"
61539330 59hexdump(1)
3a1a282a 60.SH BUGS
570d12e7 61The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.