binutils/doc/strings.1 - binutils-gdb - Git at Google


            
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            .rm #[ #] #H #V #F C

            
            .\" ========================================================================

            
            .\"

            
            .IX Title "STRINGS 1"

            
            .TH STRINGS 1 "2016-06-29" "binutils-2.26.1" "GNU Development Tools"

            
            .\" For nroff, turn off justification.  Always turn off hyphenation; it makes

            
            .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.

            
            .if n .ad l

            
            .nh

            
            .SH "NAME"

            
            strings \- print the strings of printable characters in files.

            
            .SH "SYNOPSIS"

            
            .IX Header "SYNOPSIS"

            
            strings [\fB\-afovV\fR] [\fB\-\fR\fImin-len\fR]

            
                    [\fB\-n\fR \fImin-len\fR] [\fB\-\-bytes=\fR\fImin-len\fR]

            
                    [\fB\-t\fR \fIradix\fR] [\fB\-\-radix=\fR\fIradix\fR]

            
                    [\fB\-e\fR \fIencoding\fR] [\fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fIencoding\fR]

            
                    [\fB\-\fR] [\fB\-\-all\fR] [\fB\-\-print\-file\-name\fR]

            
                    [\fB\-T\fR \fIbfdname\fR] [\fB\-\-target=\fR\fIbfdname\fR]

            
                    [\fB\-w\fR] [\fB\-\-include\-all\-whitespace\fR]

            
                    [\fB\-s\fR] [\fB\-\-output\-separator\fR\fIsep_string\fR]

            
                    [\fB\-\-help\fR] [\fB\-\-version\fR] \fIfile\fR...

            
            .SH "DESCRIPTION"

            
            .IX Header "DESCRIPTION"

            
            For each \fIfile\fR given, \s-1GNU \s0\fBstrings\fR 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.

            
            .PP

            
            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.

            
            .PP

            
            For backwards compatibility any file that occurs after a command line

            
            option of just \fB\-\fR will also be scanned in full, regardless of

            
            the presence of any \fB\-d\fR option.

            
            .PP

            
            \&\fBstrings\fR is mainly useful for determining the contents of

            
            non-text files.

            
            .SH "OPTIONS"

            
            .IX Header "OPTIONS"

            
            .IP "\fB\-a\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-a"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-all\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--all"

            
            .IP "\fB\-\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-"

            
            .PD

            
            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

            
            \&\fB\-d\fR is the default instead.

            
            .Sp

            
            The \fB\-\fR option is position dependent and forces strings to

            
            perform full scans of any file that is mentioned after the \fB\-\fR

            
            on the command line, even if the \fB\-d\fR option has been

            
            specified.

            
            .IP "\fB\-d\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-d"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-data\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--data"

            
            .PD

            
            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 \s-1BFD\s0 library used to scan and load sections.  Strings

            
            can be configured so that this option is the default behaviour.  In

            
            such cases the \fB\-a\fR option can be used to avoid using the \s-1BFD\s0

            
            library and instead just print all of the strings found in the file.

            
            .IP "\fB\-f\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-f"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-print\-file\-name\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--print-file-name"

            
            .PD

            
            Print the name of the file before each string.

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-help\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--help"

            
            Print a summary of the program usage on the standard output and exit.

            
            .IP "\fB\-\fR\fImin-len\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-min-len"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-n\fR \fImin-len\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-n min-len"

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-bytes=\fR\fImin-len\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--bytes=min-len"

            
            .PD

            
            Print sequences of characters that are at least \fImin-len\fR characters

            
            long, instead of the default 4.

            
            .IP "\fB\-o\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-o"

            
            Like \fB\-t o\fR.  Some other versions of \fBstrings\fR have \fB\-o\fR

            
            act like \fB\-t d\fR instead.  Since we can not be compatible with both

            
            ways, we simply chose one.

            
            .IP "\fB\-t\fR \fIradix\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-t radix"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-radix=\fR\fIradix\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--radix=radix"

            
            .PD

            
            Print the offset within the file before each string.  The single

            
            character argument specifies the radix of the offset\-\-\-\fBo\fR for

            
            octal, \fBx\fR for hexadecimal, or \fBd\fR for decimal.

            
            .IP "\fB\-e\fR \fIencoding\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-e encoding"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fIencoding\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--encoding=encoding"

            
            .PD

            
            Select the character encoding of the strings that are to be found.

            
            Possible values for \fIencoding\fR are: \fBs\fR = single\-7\-bit\-byte

            
            characters (\s-1ASCII, ISO 8859,\s0 etc., default), \fBS\fR =

            
            single\-8\-bit\-byte characters, \fBb\fR = 16\-bit bigendian, \fBl\fR =

            
            16\-bit littleendian, \fBB\fR = 32\-bit bigendian, \fBL\fR = 32\-bit

            
            littleendian.  Useful for finding wide character strings. (\fBl\fR

            
            and \fBb\fR apply to, for example, Unicode \s-1UTF\-16/UCS\-2\s0 encodings).

            
            .IP "\fB\-T\fR \fIbfdname\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-T bfdname"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-target=\fR\fIbfdname\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--target=bfdname"

            
            .PD

            
            Specify an object code format other than your system's default format.

            
            .IP "\fB\-v\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-v"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-V\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-V"

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-version\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--version"

            
            .PD

            
            Print the program version number on the standard output and exit.

            
            .IP "\fB\-w\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-w"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-include\-all\-whitespace\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--include-all-whitespace"

            
            .PD

            
            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 \fB\-w\fR option changes this so

            
            that all whitespace characters are considered to be part of a string.

            
            .IP "\fB\-s\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "-s"

            
            .PD 0

            
            .IP "\fB\-\-output\-separator\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "--output-separator"

            
            .PD

            
            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.

            
            .IP "\fB@\fR\fIfile\fR" 4

            
            .IX Item "@file"

            
            Read command-line options from \fIfile\fR.  The options read are

            
            inserted in place of the original @\fIfile\fR option.  If \fIfile\fR

            
            does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated

            
            literally, and not removed.

            
            .Sp

            
            Options in \fIfile\fR 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 \fIfile\fR may itself contain additional

            
            @\fIfile\fR options; any such options will be processed recursively.

            
            .SH "SEE ALSO"

            
            .IX Header "SEE ALSO"

            
            \&\fIar\fR\|(1), \fInm\fR\|(1), \fIobjdump\fR\|(1), \fIranlib\fR\|(1), \fIreadelf\fR\|(1)

            
            and the Info entries for \fIbinutils\fR.

            
            .SH "COPYRIGHT"

            
            .IX Header "COPYRIGHT"

            
            Copyright (c) 1991\-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

            
            .PP

            
            Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document

            
            under the terms of the \s-1GNU\s0 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 \*(L"\s-1GNU\s0 Free Documentation License\*(R".
	.\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 2.27 (Pod::Simple 3.28)
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	.rm #[ #] #H #V #F C
	.\" ========================================================================
	.\"
	.IX Title "STRINGS 1"
	.TH STRINGS 1 "2016-06-29" "binutils-2.26.1" "GNU Development Tools"
	.\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
	.\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
	.if n .ad l
	.nh
	.SH "NAME"
	strings \- print the strings of printable characters in files.
	.SH "SYNOPSIS"
	.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
	strings [\fB\-afovV\fR] [\fB\-\fR\fImin-len\fR]
	[\fB\-n\fR \fImin-len\fR] [\fB\-\-bytes=\fR\fImin-len\fR]
	[\fB\-t\fR \fIradix\fR] [\fB\-\-radix=\fR\fIradix\fR]
	[\fB\-e\fR \fIencoding\fR] [\fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fIencoding\fR]
	[\fB\-\fR] [\fB\-\-all\fR] [\fB\-\-print\-file\-name\fR]
	[\fB\-T\fR \fIbfdname\fR] [\fB\-\-target=\fR\fIbfdname\fR]
	[\fB\-w\fR] [\fB\-\-include\-all\-whitespace\fR]
	[\fB\-s\fR] [\fB\-\-output\-separator\fR\fIsep_string\fR]
	[\fB\-\-help\fR] [\fB\-\-version\fR] \fIfile\fR...
	.SH "DESCRIPTION"
	.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
	For each \fIfile\fR given, \s-1GNU \s0\fBstrings\fR 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.
	.PP
	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.
	.PP
	For backwards compatibility any file that occurs after a command line
	option of just \fB\-\fR will also be scanned in full, regardless of
	the presence of any \fB\-d\fR option.
	.PP
	\&\fBstrings\fR is mainly useful for determining the contents of
	non-text files.
	.SH "OPTIONS"
	.IX Header "OPTIONS"
	.IP "\fB\-a\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-a"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-\-all\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--all"
	.IP "\fB\-\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-"
	.PD
	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
	\&\fB\-d\fR is the default instead.
	.Sp
	The \fB\-\fR option is position dependent and forces strings to
	perform full scans of any file that is mentioned after the \fB\-\fR
	on the command line, even if the \fB\-d\fR option has been
	specified.
	.IP "\fB\-d\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-d"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-\-data\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--data"
	.PD
	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 \s-1BFD\s0 library used to scan and load sections. Strings
	can be configured so that this option is the default behaviour. In
	such cases the \fB\-a\fR option can be used to avoid using the \s-1BFD\s0
	library and instead just print all of the strings found in the file.
	.IP "\fB\-f\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-f"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-\-print\-file\-name\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--print-file-name"
	.PD
	Print the name of the file before each string.
	.IP "\fB\-\-help\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--help"
	Print a summary of the program usage on the standard output and exit.
	.IP "\fB\-\fR\fImin-len\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-min-len"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-n\fR \fImin-len\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-n min-len"
	.IP "\fB\-\-bytes=\fR\fImin-len\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--bytes=min-len"
	.PD
	Print sequences of characters that are at least \fImin-len\fR characters
	long, instead of the default 4.
	.IP "\fB\-o\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-o"
	Like \fB\-t o\fR. Some other versions of \fBstrings\fR have \fB\-o\fR
	act like \fB\-t d\fR instead. Since we can not be compatible with both
	ways, we simply chose one.
	.IP "\fB\-t\fR \fIradix\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-t radix"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-\-radix=\fR\fIradix\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--radix=radix"
	.PD
	Print the offset within the file before each string. The single
	character argument specifies the radix of the offset\-\-\-\fBo\fR for
	octal, \fBx\fR for hexadecimal, or \fBd\fR for decimal.
	.IP "\fB\-e\fR \fIencoding\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-e encoding"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fIencoding\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--encoding=encoding"
	.PD
	Select the character encoding of the strings that are to be found.
	Possible values for \fIencoding\fR are: \fBs\fR = single\-7\-bit\-byte
	characters (\s-1ASCII, ISO 8859,\s0 etc., default), \fBS\fR =
	single\-8\-bit\-byte characters, \fBb\fR = 16\-bit bigendian, \fBl\fR =
	16\-bit littleendian, \fBB\fR = 32\-bit bigendian, \fBL\fR = 32\-bit
	littleendian. Useful for finding wide character strings. (\fBl\fR
	and \fBb\fR apply to, for example, Unicode \s-1UTF\-16/UCS\-2\s0 encodings).
	.IP "\fB\-T\fR \fIbfdname\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-T bfdname"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-\-target=\fR\fIbfdname\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--target=bfdname"
	.PD
	Specify an object code format other than your system's default format.
	.IP "\fB\-v\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-v"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-V\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-V"
	.IP "\fB\-\-version\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--version"
	.PD
	Print the program version number on the standard output and exit.
	.IP "\fB\-w\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-w"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-\-include\-all\-whitespace\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--include-all-whitespace"
	.PD
	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 \fB\-w\fR option changes this so
	that all whitespace characters are considered to be part of a string.
	.IP "\fB\-s\fR" 4
	.IX Item "-s"
	.PD 0
	.IP "\fB\-\-output\-separator\fR" 4
	.IX Item "--output-separator"
	.PD
	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.
	.IP "\fB@\fR\fIfile\fR" 4
	.IX Item "@file"
	Read command-line options from \fIfile\fR. The options read are
	inserted in place of the original @\fIfile\fR option. If \fIfile\fR
	does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated
	literally, and not removed.
	.Sp
	Options in \fIfile\fR 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 \fIfile\fR may itself contain additional
	@\fIfile\fR options; any such options will be processed recursively.
	.SH "SEE ALSO"
	.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
	\&\fIar\fR\\|(1), \fInm\fR\\|(1), \fIobjdump\fR\\|(1), \fIranlib\fR\\|(1), \fIreadelf\fR\\|(1)
	and the Info entries for \fIbinutils\fR.
	.SH "COPYRIGHT"
	.IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
	Copyright (c) 1991\-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
	.PP
	Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
	under the terms of the \s-1GNU\s0 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 \(L"\s-1GNU\s0 Free Documentation License\(R".