STRINGS(1)                                             STRINGS(1)



NAME
       strings - find the printable strings in a object, or other
       binary, file

SYNOPSIS
       strings [ - ] [ -a ] [ -o ] [ -number ] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
       Strings looks for ASCII strings in a binary file or  stan-
       dard  input.   Strings  is  useful  for identifying random
       object files and many  other  things.   A  string  is  any
       sequence  of  4  (the default) or more printing characters
       ending with a newline or a null.  Unless  the  -  flag  is
       given,  strings  looks in all sections of the object files
       except the (__TEXT,__text) section.  If no files are spec-
       ified standard input is read.

       The options to strings(1) are:

       -a     This  option  causes strings to look for strings in
              all sections of  the  object  file  (including  the
              (__TEXT,__text) section.

       -      This  option  causes strings to look for strings in
              all bytes of the files (the default for  non-object
              files).

       -o     Preceded  each string by its offset in the file (in
              decimal).

       -number
              The decimal number is used as  the  minimum  string
              length rather than the default of 4.

SEE ALSO
       od(1)

BUGS
       The  algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primi-
       tive.



Apple Computer, Inc.     October 23, 1997              STRINGS(1)