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STRINGS(1)		    General Commands Manual		    STRINGS(1)

NAME
       strings -- print	the strings of printable characters in files

SYNOPSIS
       strings	  [-a	|   --all]   [-e   encoding   |	  --encoding=encoding]
	       [-f	|      --print-file-name]      [-h	|      --help]
	       [-n     number	  |    --bytes=number	 |    -number]	  [-o]
	       [-t radix | --radix=radix] [-v |	--version] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
       For each	file specified,	the  strings  utility  prints  contiguous  se-
       quences of printable characters that are	at least n characters long and
       are followed by an unprintable character.  The default value of n is 4.
       By  default,  the strings utility only scans the	initialized and	loaded
       sections	of ELF objects;	for other  file	 types,	 the  entire  file  is
       scanned.	  The  strings utility is mainly used for determining the con-
       tents of	non-text files.

       If no file name is specified as an argument, standard input is read.

       The following options are available:

       -a | --all
	       For ELF objects,	scan the entire	file for printable strings.

       -e encoding | --encoding=encoding
	       Select the character encoding to	be used	 while	searching  for
	       strings.	 Valid values for argument encoding are:
	       s       for single 7-bit-byte characters	(ASCII,	ISO 8859).
	       S       for single 8-bit-byte characters.
	       l       for 16-bit little-endian.
	       b       for 16-bit big-endian.
	       L       for 32-bit little-endian.
	       B       for 32-bit big-endian.
	       The  default  is	 to assume that	characters are encoded using a
	       single 7-bit byte.

       -f | --print-file-name
	       Print the name of the file before each string.

       -h | --help
	       Print a usage summary and exit.

       -n number | --bytes=number | -number
	       Print the contiguous character  sequence	 of  at	 least	number
	       characters long,	instead	of the default of 4 characters.	 Argu-
	       ment number should specify a positive decimal integer.

       -o      Equivalent to specifying	-t o.

       -t radix	| --radix=radix
	       Print  the offset from the start	of the file before each	string
	       using the specified radix.  Valid  values  for  argument	 radix
	       are:
	       d       for decimal
	       o       for octal
	       x       for hexadecimal

       -v | --version
	       Display a version identifier and	exit.

EXIT STATUS
       The strings utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES
       To display strings in /bin/ls use:
	     $ strings /bin/ls

       To display strings in all sections of /bin/ln use:
	     $ strings -a /bin/ln

       To  display strings in all sections of /bin/cat prefixed	with the file-
       name and	the offset within the file use:
	     $ strings -a -f -t	x /bin/cat

SEE ALSO
       ar(1), nm(1), objdump(1), ranlib, readelf(1), size(1)

HISTORY
       The first FreeBSD strings utility appeared in FreeBSD v3. It was	 later
       discontinued  in	FreeBSD	v5, when i386-only a.out format	was dropped in
       favor of	ELF.

AUTHORS
       The   strings   utility	 was   re-written   by	  S.Sam	   Arun	   Raj
       <samarunraj@gmail.com>.	This manual page was written by	S.Sam Arun Raj
       <samarunraj@gmail.com>.

FreeBSD	13.2		       January 24, 2016			    STRINGS(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

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