1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)strings.1 6.9 (Berkeley) 04/22/91 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt STRINGS 1 10.Os BSD 3 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm strings 13.Nd find printable strings in a file 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm strings 16.Op Fl afo 17.Op Fl n Ar number 18.Op Ar file ... 19.Sh DESCRIPTION 20.Nm Strings 21displays the sequences of printable characters in each of the specified 22files, or in the standard input, by default. 23By default, a sequence must be at least four characters in length 24before being displayed. 25.Pp 26The options are as follows: 27.Bl -tag -width Ds 28.It Fl a 29By default, 30.Nm strings 31only searches the initialized data space of object files. 32The 33.Fl a 34option causes 35.Nm strings 36to search the entire object file. 37.It Fl f 38Each string is preceded by the name of the file 39in which it was found. 40.It Fl n 41Specifies the minimum number of characters in a sequence to be 42.Ar number , 43instead of four. 44.It Fl o 45Each string is preceded by its decimal offset in the 46file. 47.El 48.Pp 49.Nm Strings 50is useful for identifying random binaries, among other things. 51.Sh SEE ALSO 52.Xr hexdump 1 53.Sh BUGS 54The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive. 55.Sh HISTORY 56The 57.Nm 58command appeared in 59.Bx 3.0 . 60