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32 .\" @(#)strings.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
40 .Nd find printable strings in a file
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.
55 The options are as follows:
60 only searches the text and data segments of object files.
65 to search the entire object file.
67 Each string is preceded by the name of the file
68 in which it was found.
70 Specifies the minimum number of characters in a sequence to be
74 Each string is preceded by its decimal offset in the
80 utility is useful for identifying random binaries, among other things.
84 The algorithm for identifying strings is extremely primitive.
85 In particular, machine code instructions on certain architectures
86 can resemble sequences of ASCII bytes, which
87 will fool the algorithm.
89 Historic implementations of
91 only search the initialized data portion of the object file.
92 This was reasonable as strings were normally stored there.
93 Given new compiler technology which installs strings in the
94 text portion of the object file, the default behavior was