1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" @(#)strings.1 6.11 (Berkeley) 5/9/91 33.\" 34.Dd May 9, 1991 35.Dt STRINGS 1 36.Os BSD 3 37.Sh NAME 38.Nm strings 39.Nd find printable strings in a file 40.Sh SYNOPSIS 41.Nm strings 42.Op Fl afo 43.Op Fl n Ar number 44.Op Ar file ... 45.Sh DESCRIPTION 46.Nm Strings 47displays the sequences of printable characters in each of the specified 48files, or in the standard input, by default. 49By default, a sequence must be at least four characters in length 50before being displayed. 51.Pp 52The options are as follows: 53.Bl -tag -width Ds 54.It Fl a 55By default, 56.Nm strings 57only searches the text and data segments of object files. 58The 59.Fl a 60option causes 61.Nm strings 62to search the entire object file. 63.It Fl f 64Each string is preceded by the name of the file 65in which it was found. 66.It Fl n 67Specifies the minimum number of characters in a sequence to be 68.Ar number , 69instead of four. 70.It Fl o 71Each string is preceded by its decimal offset in the 72file. 73.El 74.Pp 75.Nm Strings 76is useful for identifying random binaries, among other things. 77.Sh SEE ALSO 78.Xr hexdump 1 79.Sh BUGS 80The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive. 81In particular, machine code instructions on certain architectures 82can resemble sequences of ASCII bytes, which 83will fool the algorithm. 84.Sh COMPATIBILITY 85Historic implementations of 86.Nm 87only search the initialized data portion of the object file. 88This was reasonable as strings were normally stored there. 89Given new compiler technology which installs strings in the 90text portion of the object file, the default behavior was 91changed. 92.Sh HISTORY 93The 94.Nm 95command appeared in 96.Bx 3.0 . 97