LOOK(1) User Commands LOOK(1) NAME look - display lines beginning with a given string SYNOPSIS look [options] string [file] DESCRIPTION The look utility displays any lines in file which contain string as a pre- fix. As look performs a binary search, the lines in file must be sorted (where sort(1) was given the same options -d and/or -f that look is invoked with). If file is not specified, the file /usr/share/dict/words is used, only al- phanumeric characters are compared and the case of alphabetic characters is ignored. OPTIONS -a, --alternative Use the alternative dictionary file. -d, --alphanum Use normal dictionary character set and order, i.e., only blanks and alphanumeric characters are compared. This is on by default if no file is specified. Note that blanks have been added to dictionary character set for com- patibility with sort -d command since version 2.28. -f, --ignore-case Ignore the case of alphabetic characters. This is on by default if no file is specified. -t, --terminate character Specify a string termination character, i.e., only the characters in string up to and including the first occurrence of character are com- pared. -h, --help Display help text and exit. -V, --version Display version and exit. EXIT STATUS The look utility exits 0 if one or more lines were found and displayed, 1 if no lines were found, and >1 if an error occurred. ENVIRONMENT WORDLIST Path to a dictionary file. The environment variable has greater prior- ity than the dictionary path defined in the FILES segment. FILES /usr/share/dict/words the dictionary /usr/share/dict/web2 the alternative dictionary HISTORY The look utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix. EXAMPLES sort -d /etc/passwd -o /tmp/look.dict look -t: root:foobar /tmp/look.dict SEE ALSO grep(1), sort(1) REPORTING BUGS For bug reports, use the issue tracker <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>. AVAILABILITY The look command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. util-linux 2.41.2 2025-09-22 LOOK(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXIT STATUS | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | HISTORY | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | REPORTING BUGS | AVAILABILITY
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