NAME

strings − find printable strings in an object file or binary

SYNOPSIS

strings [ −a ] [ −o ] [ −n number |−number ] filename . . . 

DESCRIPTION

The strings command 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. 

The following options are available:

−a Look everywhere in the file for strings.  If this flag is omitted, strings only looks in the initialized data space of object files. 

−o Precede each string by its offset in the file. 

−n number Use number as the minimum string length rather than 4. 

SEE ALSO

od(1)

NOTES

The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive. 

For backwards compatibility, −number can be used in place of −n number.  Similarly, the −a and a − option are interchangeable.  The − and the −number variations are obsolescent. 

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