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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.


OPTIONS
       The strings utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section  12.2,
       Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       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 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, 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.

       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
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 requires implementations to write strings as defined by the current locale.


FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.


SEE ALSO
       localedef , nm


       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition,
       Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open  Group  Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 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 .