usr/src/usr.bin/strings/strings.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\"
.\"     @(#)strings.1   6.4 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.TH STRINGS 1 ""
.UC
.SH NAME
strings \- find the printable strings in a file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B strings
[
.B \-ao
] [
\fB\-\fInumber\fR
] [ file ... ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fIStrings\fP looks for ascii strings in each of the specified files,
or from the standard input.  A string is any sequence of 4 or more printing
characters.  Unless the \fB-a\fP flag is given, \fIstrings\fP only looks
in the initialized data space of object files.  If the \fB-o\fP flag is
given, then each string is preceded by its decimal offset in the file.
If the \fB-\fInumber\fR flag is given, then \fInumber\fP is used as the
minimum string length rather than 4.
.PP
\fIStrings\fP is useful for identifying random object files and
many other things.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
od(1)
.SH BUGS
The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.