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STRINGS(1)                                      GNU Development Tools                                      STRINGS(1)



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]
               [--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.
           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.

       @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) 1991-2014 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".



binutils-2.25                                         2014-12-23                                           STRINGS(1)