NAME

strings — find printable strings in files

SYNOPSIS

strings [-a] [-t format] [-n number] [file...]

DESCRIPTION

The strings utility shall look for printable strings in regular files and shall write those strings to standard output. A printable string is any sequence of four (by default) or more printable characters terminated by a <newline> or NUL character. Additional implementation-defined strings may be written; see localedef.

If any argument is '-', the results are unspecified.

OPTIONS

The strings utility shall conform to XBD 12.2 Utility Syntax Guidelines , except for the unspecified usage of '-'.

The following options shall be supported:

-a

Scan files in their entirety. If -a is not specified, it is implementation-defined what portion of each file is scanned for strings.

-n number

Specify the minimum string length, where the number argument is a positive decimal integer. The default shall be 4.

-t format

Write each string preceded by its byte offset from the start of the file. The format shall be dependent on the single character used as the format option-argument:

d

The offset shall be written in decimal.

o

The offset shall be written in octal.

x

The offset shall be written in hexadecimal.

OPERANDS

The following operand shall be supported:

file

A pathname of a regular file to be used as input. If no file operand is specified, the strings utility shall read from the standard input.

STDIN

See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES

The input files named by the utility arguments or the standard input shall be regular files of any format.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of strings:

LANG

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See XBD 8.2 Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL

If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE

Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files) and to identify printable strings.

LC_MESSAGES

Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

NLSPATH

^[XSI] Determine the location of messages objects and message catalogs.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

Default.

STDOUT

Strings found shall be written to the standard output, one per line.

When the -t option is not specified, the format of the output shall be:

"%s", <string>

With the -t o option, the format of the output shall be:

"%o %s", <byte offset>, <string>

With the -t x option, the format of the output shall be:

"%x %s", <byte offset>, <string>

With the -t d option, the format of the output shall be:

"%d %s", <byte offset>, <string>

STDERR

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

None.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values shall be returned:

 0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

Default.

APPLICATION USAGE

By default the data area (as opposed to the text, "bss", or header areas) of a binary executable file is scanned. Implementations document which areas are scanned.

Some historical implementations do not require NUL or <newline> terminators for strings to permit those languages that do not use NUL as a string terminator to have their strings written.

EXAMPLES

None.

RATIONALE

Apart from rationalizing the option syntax and slight difficulties with object and executable binary files, strings is specified to match historical practice closely. The -a and -n options were introduced to replace the non-conforming - and -number options. These options are no longer specified by POSIX.1-2024 but may be present in some implementations.

The -o option historically means different things on different implementations. Some use it to mean "offset in decimal", while others use it as "offset in octal". Instead of trying to decide which way would be least objectionable, the -t option was added. It was originally named -O to mean "offset", but was changed to -t to be consistent with od.

The ISO C standard function isprint() is restricted to a domain of unsigned char. This volume of POSIX.1-2024 requires implementations to write strings as defined by the current locale.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

localedef , nm

XBD 8. Environment Variables , 12.2 Utility Syntax Guidelines

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 4.

Issue 6

This utility is marked as part of the User Portability Utilities option.

The obsolescent SYNOPSIS is removed.

The normative text is reworded to avoid use of the term "must" for application requirements.

Issue 7

Austin Group Interpretation 1003.1-2001 #027 is applied, clarifying the behavior if the first argument is '-'.

The strings utility is moved from the User Portability Utilities option to the Base. User Portability Utilities is now an option for interactive utilities.

SD5-XCU-ERN-97 is applied, updating the SYNOPSIS.

Issue 8

Austin Group Defect 1122 is applied, changing the description of NLSPATH .

Austin Group Defect 1599 is applied, making the behavior unspecified when any argument is '-'.