NAME
strings - print the strings of printable characters in
files.
SYNOPSIS
strings [-afov]
[-min-len]
[-n min-len] [
--bytes=min-len]
[-t radix] [
--radix=radix]
[-e encoding] [
--encoding=encoding]
[-] [
--all] [--print-file-name]
[-T bfdname] [
--target=bfdname]
[--help] [
--version] file...
DESCRIPTION
For each file
given, GNU strings 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.
strings is mainly useful for determining the contents of
non-text files.
OPTIONS
- -a
-
- --all
-
- -
- Do not scan only the initialized and
loaded sections of object files; scan the whole files.
- -f
-
- --print-file-name
- Print the name of the file before each
string.
- --help
- Print a summary of the program usage on
the standard output and exit.
- -min-len
-
- -n min-len
-
- --bytes=min-len
- Print sequences of characters that are at
least min-len characters long, instead of the default 4.
- -o
- Like -t o. Some other versions of
strings have -o act like -t d instead. Since
we can not be compatible with both ways, we simply chose one.
- -t radix
-
- --radix=radix
- Print the offset within the file before
each string. The single character argument specifies the radix of
the offset---o for octal, x for hexadecimal, or
d for decimal.
- -e encoding
-
- --encoding=encoding
- Select the character encoding of the
strings that are to be found. Possible values for encoding
are: s = single-7-bit-byte characters (ASCII, ISO 8859, etc., default),
S = single-8-bit-byte characters, b = 16-bit
bigendian, l = 16-bit littleendian, B = 32-bit
bigendian, L = 32-bit littleendian. Useful for finding wide
character strings.
- -T bfdname
-
- --target=bfdname
- Specify an object code format other than
your system's default format.
- -v
-
- --version
- Print the program version number on the
standard output and exit.
- @file
- Read command-line options from
file. The options read are inserted in place of the original
@file option. If file does not exist, or cannot be
read, then the option will be treated literally, and not removed.
Options in file 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 file may itself contain
additional @file options; any such options will be processed
recursively.
SEE ALSO
ar(1),
nm(1),
objdump(1),
ranlib(1),
readelf(1)
and the Info entries for binutils.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992,
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free
Documentation License, Version 1.1 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 ``GNU Free Documentation License''.