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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of
this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of
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NAME
strings — find printable strings in files
SYNOPSIS
strings [-a] [-t format] [-n number] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
The strings utility shall look for printable strings in regular files and shall write
those strings to standard output. A printable string is any sequence of four (by default)
or more printable characters terminated by a <newline> or NUL character. Additional
implementation-defined strings may be written; see localedef.
If the first argument is '-', the results are unspecified.
OPTIONS
The strings utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section
12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, except for the unspecified usage of '-'.
The following options shall be supported:
-a Scan files in their entirety. If -a is not specified, it is implementation-
defined what portion of each file is scanned for strings.
-n number Specify the minimum string length, where the number argument is a positive
decimal integer. The default shall be 4.
-t format Write each string preceded by its byte offset from the start of the file. The
format shall be dependent on the single character used as the format option-
argument:
d The offset shall be written in decimal.
o The offset shall be written in octal.
x The offset shall be written in hexadecimal.
OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
file A pathname of a regular file to be used as input. If no file operand is
specified, the strings utility shall read from the standard input.
STDIN
See the INPUT FILES section.
INPUT FILES
The input files named by the utility arguments or the standard input shall be regular
files of any format.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of strings:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or
null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2,
Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization
variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other
internationalization variables.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data
as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in
arguments and input files) and to identify printable strings.
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of
diagnostic messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
Strings found shall be written to the standard output, one per line.
When the -t option is not specified, the format of the output shall be:
"%s", <string>
With the -t o option, the format of the output shall be:
"%o %s", <byte offset>, <string>
With the -t x option, the format of the output shall be:
"%x %s", <byte offset>, <string>
With the -t d option, the format of the output shall be:
"%d %s", <byte offset>, <string>
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
By default the data area (as opposed to the text, ``bss'', or header areas) of a binary
executable file is scanned. Implementations document which areas are scanned.
Some historical implementations do not require NUL or <newline> terminators for strings to
permit those languages that do not use NUL as a string terminator to have their strings
written.
EXAMPLES
None.
RATIONALE
Apart from rationalizing the option syntax and slight difficulties with object and
executable binary files, strings is specified to match historical practice closely. The -a
and -n options were introduced to replace the non-conforming - and -number options. These
options are no longer specified by POSIX.1‐2008 but may be present in some
implementations.
The -o option historically means different things on different implementations. Some use
it to mean ``offset in decimal'', while others use it as ``offset in octal''. Instead of
trying to decide which way would be least objectionable, the -t option was added. It was
originally named -O to mean ``offset'', but was changed to -t to be consistent with od.
The ISO C standard function isprint() is restricted to a domain of unsigned char. This
volume of POSIX.1‐2017 requires implementations to write strings as defined by the current
locale.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
localedef, nm
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section
12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface
(POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group
Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The
original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have
been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report
such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .