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Annotation of src/usr.bin/strings/strings.1, Revision 1.1.1.1

1.1       deraadt     1: .\"    $NetBSD: strings.1,v 1.4 1994/12/10 11:54:28 jtc Exp $
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                     34: .\"     @(#)strings.1  8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
                     35: .\"
                     36: .Dd June 6, 1993
                     37: .Dt STRINGS 1
                     38: .Os
                     39: .Sh NAME
                     40: .Nm strings
                     41: .Nd find printable strings in a file
                     42: .Sh SYNOPSIS
                     43: .Nm strings
                     44: .Op Fl afo
                     45: .Op Fl n Ar number
                     46: .Op Fl t Ar radix
                     47: .Op Ar file ...
                     48: .Sh DESCRIPTION
                     49: .Nm Strings
                     50: displays the sequences of printable characters in each of the specified
                     51: files, or in the standard input, by default.
                     52: By default, a sequence must be at least four characters in length
                     53: before being displayed.
                     54: .Pp
                     55: The options are as follows:
                     56: .Bl -tag -width Ds
                     57: .It Fl a
                     58: By default,
                     59: .Nm strings
                     60: only searches the text and data segments of object files.
                     61: The
                     62: .Fl a
                     63: option causes
                     64: .Nm strings
                     65: to search the entire object file.
                     66: .It Fl f
                     67: Each string is preceded by the name of the file
                     68: in which it was found.
                     69: .It Fl n
                     70: Specifies the minimum number of characters in a sequence to be
                     71: .Ar number ,
                     72: instead of four.
                     73: .It Fl o
                     74: Each string is preceded by its octal offset in the file.
                     75: .It Fl t
                     76: Each string is preceded by its offset in the file.  The first character of
                     77: .Ar radix
                     78: determines the radix of the offset:
                     79: .Sq o
                     80: for octal;
                     81: .Sq d
                     82: for decimal; or
                     83: .Sq x
                     84: for hexadecimal.
                     85: .El
                     86: .Pp
                     87: .Nm Strings
                     88: is useful for identifying random binaries, among other things.
                     89: .Sh SEE ALSO
                     90: .Xr hexdump 1 ,
                     91: .Xr od 1
                     92: .Sh BUGS
                     93: The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.
                     94: In particular, machine code instructions on certain architectures
                     95: can resemble sequences of ASCII bytes, which
                     96: will fool the algorithm.
                     97: .Sh COMPATIBILITY
                     98: Historic implementations of
                     99: .Nm
                    100: only search the initialized data portion of the object file.
                    101: This was reasonable as strings were normally stored there.
                    102: Given new compiler technology which installs strings in the
                    103: text portion of the object file, the default behavior was
                    104: changed.
                    105: .Sh STANDARDS
                    106: The
                    107: .Nm
                    108: utility conforms to
                    109: .St -p1003.2-92 .
                    110: .Sh HISTORY
                    111: The
                    112: .Nm
                    113: utility appeared in
                    114: .Bx 3.0 .