NAME

       strings - print the strings of printable characters in files.

SYNOPSIS

       strings [-afovV] [-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.
           (l and b apply to, for example, Unicode UTF-16/UCS-2 encodings).

       -T bfdname
       --target=bfdname
           Specify an object code format other than your system's default format.

       -v
       -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) 1991-2013 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 1.3 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 "GNU Free
       Documentation License".