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.\" ========================================================================
.\"
.IX Title "STRINGS 1"
.TH STRINGS 1 " " "binutils-2.21" "GNU Development Tools"
.\" For nroff, turn off justification.  Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
.\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
.if n .ad l
.nh
.SH "NAME"
strings \- print the strings of printable characters in files.
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
strings [\fB\-afovV\fR] [\fB\-\fR\fImin-len\fR]
        [\fB\-n\fR \fImin-len\fR] [\fB\-\-bytes=\fR\fImin-len\fR]
        [\fB\-t\fR \fIradix\fR] [\fB\-\-radix=\fR\fIradix\fR]
        [\fB\-e\fR \fIencoding\fR] [\fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fIencoding\fR]
        [\fB\-\fR] [\fB\-\-all\fR] [\fB\-\-print\-file\-name\fR]
        [\fB\-T\fR \fIbfdname\fR] [\fB\-\-target=\fR\fIbfdname\fR]
        [\fB\-\-help\fR] [\fB\-\-version\fR] \fIfile\fR...
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
For each \fIfile\fR given, \s-1GNU\s0 \fBstrings\fR prints the printable
character sequences that are at least 4 characters long (or the number
given with the options below) and are followed by an unprintable
character.  By default, it only prints the strings from the initialized
and loaded sections of object files; for other types of files, it prints
the strings from the whole file.
.PP
\&\fBstrings\fR is mainly useful for determining the contents of non-text
files.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.IX Header "OPTIONS"
.IP "\fB\-a\fR" 4
.IX Item "-a"
.PD 0
.IP "\fB\-\-all\fR" 4
.IX Item "--all"
.IP "\fB\-\fR" 4
.IX Item "-"
.PD
Do not scan only the initialized and loaded sections of object files;
scan the whole files.
.IP "\fB\-f\fR" 4
.IX Item "-f"
.PD 0
.IP "\fB\-\-print\-file\-name\fR" 4
.IX Item "--print-file-name"
.PD
Print the name of the file before each string.
.IP "\fB\-\-help\fR" 4
.IX Item "--help"
Print a summary of the program usage on the standard output and exit.
.IP "\fB\-\fR\fImin-len\fR" 4
.IX Item "-min-len"
.PD 0
.IP "\fB\-n\fR \fImin-len\fR" 4
.IX Item "-n min-len"
.IP "\fB\-\-bytes=\fR\fImin-len\fR" 4
.IX Item "--bytes=min-len"
.PD
Print sequences of characters that are at least \fImin-len\fR characters
long, instead of the default 4.
.IP "\fB\-o\fR" 4
.IX Item "-o"
Like \fB\-t o\fR.  Some other versions of \fBstrings\fR have \fB\-o\fR
act like \fB\-t d\fR instead.  Since we can not be compatible with both
ways, we simply chose one.
.IP "\fB\-t\fR \fIradix\fR" 4
.IX Item "-t radix"
.PD 0
.IP "\fB\-\-radix=\fR\fIradix\fR" 4
.IX Item "--radix=radix"
.PD
Print the offset within the file before each string.  The single
character argument specifies the radix of the offset\-\-\-\fBo\fR for
octal, \fBx\fR for hexadecimal, or \fBd\fR for decimal.
.IP "\fB\-e\fR \fIencoding\fR" 4
.IX Item "-e encoding"
.PD 0
.IP "\fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fIencoding\fR" 4
.IX Item "--encoding=encoding"
.PD
Select the character encoding of the strings that are to be found.
Possible values for \fIencoding\fR are: \fBs\fR = single\-7\-bit\-byte
characters (\s-1ASCII\s0, \s-1ISO\s0 8859, etc., default), \fBS\fR =
single\-8\-bit\-byte characters, \fBb\fR = 16\-bit bigendian, \fBl\fR =
16\-bit littleendian, \fBB\fR = 32\-bit bigendian, \fBL\fR = 32\-bit
littleendian.  Useful for finding wide character strings. (\fBl\fR
and \fBb\fR apply to, for example, Unicode \s-1UTF\-16/UCS\-2\s0 encodings).
.IP "\fB\-T\fR \fIbfdname\fR" 4
.IX Item "-T bfdname"
.PD 0
.IP "\fB\-\-target=\fR\fIbfdname\fR" 4
.IX Item "--target=bfdname"
.PD
Specify an object code format other than your system's default format.
.IP "\fB\-v\fR" 4
.IX Item "-v"
.PD 0
.IP "\fB\-V\fR" 4
.IX Item "-V"
.IP "\fB\-\-version\fR" 4
.IX Item "--version"
.PD
Print the program version number on the standard output and exit.
.IP "\fB@\fR\fIfile\fR" 4
.IX Item "@file"
Read command-line options from \fIfile\fR.  The options read are
inserted in place of the original @\fIfile\fR option.  If \fIfile\fR
does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated
literally, and not removed.
.Sp
Options in \fIfile\fR are separated by whitespace.  A whitespace
character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire
option in either single or double quotes.  Any character (including a
backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be included
with a backslash.  The \fIfile\fR may itself contain additional
@\fIfile\fR options; any such options will be processed recursively.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
\&\fIar\fR\|(1), \fInm\fR\|(1), \fIobjdump\fR\|(1), \fIranlib\fR\|(1), \fIreadelf\fR\|(1)
and the Info entries for \fIbinutils\fR.
.SH "COPYRIGHT"
.IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
.PP
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the \s-1GNU\s0 Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the
section entitled \*(L"\s-1GNU\s0 Free Documentation License\*(R".