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| <a name="strings-1"></a> |
| <h2 class="chapter">7 strings</h2> |
| <a name="index-strings"></a> |
| <a name="index-listings-strings"></a> |
| <a name="index-printing-strings"></a> |
| <a name="index-strings_002c-printing"></a> |
| |
| |
| <div class="smallexample"> |
| <pre class="smallexample">strings [<samp>-afovV</samp>] [<samp>-</samp><var>min-len</var>] |
| [<samp>-n</samp> <var>min-len</var>] [<samp>--bytes=</samp><var>min-len</var>] |
| [<samp>-t</samp> <var>radix</var>] [<samp>--radix=</samp><var>radix</var>] |
| [<samp>-e</samp> <var>encoding</var>] [<samp>--encoding=</samp><var>encoding</var>] |
| [<samp>-</samp>] [<samp>--all</samp>] [<samp>--print-file-name</samp>] |
| [<samp>-T</samp> <var>bfdname</var>] [<samp>--target=</samp><var>bfdname</var>] |
| [<samp>-w</samp>] [<samp>--include-all-whitespace</samp>] |
| [<samp>--help</samp>] [<samp>--version</samp>] <var>file</var>… |
| </pre></div> |
| |
| |
| <p>For each <var>file</var> given, <small>GNU</small> <code>strings</code> 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. |
| </p> |
| <p>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. |
| </p> |
| <p>For backwards compatibility any file that occurs after a command line |
| option of just <samp>-</samp> will also be scanned in full, regardless of |
| the presence of any <samp>-d</samp> option. |
| </p> |
| <p><code>strings</code> is mainly useful for determining the contents of |
| non-text files. |
| </p> |
| |
| |
| <dl compact="compact"> |
| <dt><code>-a</code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--all</code></dt> |
| <dt><code>-</code></dt> |
| <dd><p>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 |
| <samp>-d</samp> is the default instead. |
| </p> |
| <p>The <samp>-</samp> option is position dependent and forces strings to |
| perform full scans of any file that is mentioned after the <samp>-</samp> |
| on the command line, even if the <samp>-d</samp> option has been |
| specified. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-d</code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--data</code></dt> |
| <dd><p>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 <samp>-a</samp> option can be used to avoid using the BFD |
| library and instead just print all of the strings found in the file. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-f</code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--print-file-name</code></dt> |
| <dd><p>Print the name of the file before each string. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>--help</code></dt> |
| <dd><p>Print a summary of the program usage on the standard output and exit. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-<var>min-len</var></code></dt> |
| <dt><code>-n <var>min-len</var></code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--bytes=<var>min-len</var></code></dt> |
| <dd><p>Print sequences of characters that are at least <var>min-len</var> characters |
| long, instead of the default 4. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-o</code></dt> |
| <dd><p>Like ‘<samp>-t o</samp>’. Some other versions of <code>strings</code> have <samp>-o</samp> |
| act like ‘<samp>-t d</samp>’ instead. Since we can not be compatible with both |
| ways, we simply chose one. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-t <var>radix</var></code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--radix=<var>radix</var></code></dt> |
| <dd><p>Print the offset within the file before each string. The single |
| character argument specifies the radix of the offset—‘<samp>o</samp>’ for |
| octal, ‘<samp>x</samp>’ for hexadecimal, or ‘<samp>d</samp>’ for decimal. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-e <var>encoding</var></code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--encoding=<var>encoding</var></code></dt> |
| <dd><p>Select the character encoding of the strings that are to be found. |
| Possible values for <var>encoding</var> are: ‘<samp>s</samp>’ = single-7-bit-byte |
| characters (ASCII, ISO 8859, etc., default), ‘<samp>S</samp>’ = |
| single-8-bit-byte characters, ‘<samp>b</samp>’ = 16-bit bigendian, ‘<samp>l</samp>’ = |
| 16-bit littleendian, ‘<samp>B</samp>’ = 32-bit bigendian, ‘<samp>L</samp>’ = 32-bit |
| littleendian. Useful for finding wide character strings. (‘<samp>l</samp>’ |
| and ‘<samp>b</samp>’ apply to, for example, Unicode UTF-16/UCS-2 encodings). |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-T <var>bfdname</var></code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--target=<var>bfdname</var></code></dt> |
| <dd><a name="index-object-code-format-3"></a> |
| <p>Specify an object code format other than your system’s default format. |
| See <a href="Target-Selection.html#Target-Selection">Target Selection</a>, for more information. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-v</code></dt> |
| <dt><code>-V</code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--version</code></dt> |
| <dd><p>Print the program version number on the standard output and exit. |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| <dt><code>-w</code></dt> |
| <dt><code>--include-all-whitespace</code></dt> |
| <dd><p>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 <samp>-w</samp> option changes this so |
| that all whitespace characters are considered to be part of a string. |
| </p></dd> |
| </dl> |
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