binutils/strings.1

   1 .\" Copyright (c) 1993 Free Software Foundation
   2 .\" See section COPYING for conditions for redistribution
   3 .TH nm 1 "25 June 1993" "cygnus support" "GNU Development Tools"
   4 .de BP
   5 .sp
   6 .ti \-.2i
   7 \(**
   8 ..
   9
  10 .SH NAME
  11 strings\(em\&print the strings of printable characters in files
  12
  13 .SH SYNOPSIS
  14 .hy 0
  15 .na
  16 .TP
  17 .B strings
  18 .RB "[\|" \-a | \-\c
  19 .RB | \-\-all "\|]"
  20 .RB "[\|" \-f | \-\-print\-file\-name "\|]"
  21 .RB "[\|" \-o "\|]"
  22 .RB "[\|" \-\-help "\|]"
  23 .RB "[\|" \-v | \-\-version "\|]"
  24 .RB "[\|" \-n
  25 .I min\-len\c
  26 .RI | \-min\-len\c
  27 .RB | "\-\-bytes="\c
  28 .I min\-len\c
  29 \&\|]
  30 .RB "[\|" \-t
  31 .I {o,x,d}\c
  32 .RB | "\-\-radix="\c
  33 .I {o,x,d}\c
  34 \&\|]
  35 .I file\c
  36 .ad b
  37 .hy 1
  38 .SH DESCRIPTION
  39 For each
  40 .I file
  41 given, GNU \c
  42 .B strings
  43 prints the printable character sequences that are at least 4
  44 characters long (or the number given with the options below) and are
  45 followed by a NUL or newline character.  By default, it only prints
  46 the strings from the initialized data sections of object files; for
  47 other types of files, it prints the strings from the whole file.
  48
  49 .PP
  50 .B strings
  51 is mainly useful for determining the contents of non-text files.
  52
  53 .SH OPTIONS
  54 The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are
  55 equivalent.
  56
  57 .TP
  58 .B \-a
  59 .TP
  60 .B \-\-all
  61 .TP
  62 .B \-
  63 Do not scan only the initialized data section of object files; scan
  64 the whole files.
  65
  66 .TP
  67 .B \-f
  68 .TP
  69 .B \-\-print\-file\-name
  70 Print the name of the file before each string.
  71
  72 .TP
  73 .B \-\-help
  74 Print a summary of the options to
  75 .B strings
  76 on the standard output and exit.
  77
  78 .TP
  79 .B \-v
  80 .TP
  81 .B \-\-version
  82 Print the version number
  83 of
  84 .B strings
  85 on the standard output and exit.
  86
  87 .TP
  88 .B "\-n \fImin\-len\fP"
  89 .B "\-\fImin\-len\fP"
  90 .TP
  91 .B "\-bytes=\fImin\-len\fP"
  92 Print sequences of characters that are at least
  93 .I min\-len
  94 characters long, instead of the default 4.
  95
  96 .TP
  97 .BR "\-t " {o,x,d}
  98 .TP
  99 .BR "\-\-radix=" {o,x,d}
 100 Print the offset within the file before each string.  The single
 101 character argument specifies the radix of the offset\(emoctal,
 102 hexadecimal, or decimal.
 103
 104 .TP
 105 .B \-o
 106 Like
 107 .BR "\-t o" .
 108
 109 .PP
 110
 111 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 112 .RB "`\|" binutils "\|'"
 113 entry in
 114 .B
 115 info\c
 116 \&;
 117 .I
 118 The GNU Binary Utilities\c
 119 \&, Roland H. Pesch (October 1991);
 120 .BR ar ( 1 ),
 121 .BR nm ( 1 ),
 122 .BR objdump ( 1 ),
 123 .BR ranlib ( 1 ).
 124
 125
 126 .SH COPYING
 127 Copyright (c) 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 128 .PP
 129 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
 130 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
 131 are preserved on all copies.
 132 .PP
 133 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
 134 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
 135 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
 136 permission notice identical to this one.
 137 .PP
 138 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
 139 manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
 140 versions, except that this permission notice may be included in
 141 translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in
 142 the original English.