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]
[
-w] [
--include-all-whitespace]
[
-s] [
--output-separatorsep_string]
[
--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.
Depending upon how the strings program was configured it will default to either
displaying all the printable sequences that it can find in each file, or only
those sequences that are in loadable, initialized data sections. If the file
type in unrecognizable, or if strings is reading from stdin then it will
always display all of the printable sequences that it can find.
For backwards compatibility any file that occurs after a command line option of
just
- will also be scanned in full, regardless of the presence of any
-d option.
strings is mainly useful for determining the contents of non-text files.
OPTIONS
- -a
- --all
- -
- Scan the whole file, regardless of what sections it
contains or whether those sections are loaded or initialized. Normally
this is the default behaviour, but strings can be configured so that the
-d is the default instead.
The - option is position dependent and forces strings to perform full
scans of any file that is mentioned after the - on the command
line, even if the -d option has been specified.
- -d
- --data
- Only print strings from initialized, loaded data sections
in the file. This may reduce the amount of garbage in the output, but it
also exposes the strings program to any security flaws that may be present
in the BFD library used to scan and load sections. Strings can be
configured so that this option is the default behaviour. In such cases the
-a option can be used to avoid using the BFD library and instead
just print all of the strings found in the file.
- -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.
- -w
- --include-all-whitespace
- By default tab and space characters are included in the
strings that are displayed, but other whitespace characters, such a
newlines and carriage returns, are not. The -w option changes this
so that all whitespace characters are considered to be part of a
string.
- -s
- --output-separator
- By default, output strings are delimited by a new-line.
This option allows you to supply any string to be used as the output
record separator. Useful with --include-all-whitespace where strings may
contain new-lines internally.
- @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) 1991-2016 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".