strings (Unix)

strings
	The strings command
Operating system	Unix, Unix-like, Plan 9, Inferno
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Command

In computer software, strings is a program in Unix, Plan 9, Inferno, and Unix-like operating systems that finds and prints text strings embedded in binary files such as executables. It can be used on object files and core dumps.

Overview[]

Strings are recognized by looking for sequences of at least 4 (by default) printable characters terminating in a NUL character (that is, null-terminated strings). Some implementations provide options for determining what is recognized as a printable character, which is useful for finding non-ASCII and wide character text.

Common usage includes piping its output to grep and fold or redirecting the output to a file.^[1]

It is part of the GNU Binary Utilities (binutils), and has been ported to other operating systems including Windows.^[2]

Example[]

Using strings to print sequences of characters that are at least 8 characters long (this command prints the system's BIOS information; should be run as root):

dd if=/dev/mem bs=1k skip=768 count=256 2>/dev/null | strings -n 8 | less

References[]

^ Kiddle, Oliver; Jerry Peek; Peter Stephenson (2005). From Bash to Z Shell. New York, NY: Apress. p. 413. ISBN 978-1-590-59376-9. OCLC 57450917.
^ cygwin

External links[]

strings – Commands & Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Issue 7 from The Open Group
strings(1) – Plan 9 Programmer's Manual, Volume 1
strings(1) – Inferno General commands Manual

This Unix-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

[1] Kiddle, Oliver; Jerry Peek; Peter Stephenson (2005). From Bash to Z Shell. New York, NY: Apress. p. 413. ISBN 978-1-590-59376-9. OCLC 57450917.

[2] ygwin

[1]

[2]

v t Unix command-line interface programs and shell builtins
File system	cat chmod chown chgrp cksum cmp cp dd du df file fuser ln ls mkdir mv pax pwd rm rmdir split tee touch type umask
Processes	at bg crontab fg kill nice ps time
User environment	env exit logname mesg talk tput uname who write
Text processing	awk basename comm csplit cut diff dirname ed ex fold head iconv join m4 more nl paste patch printf sed sort strings tail tr uniq vi wc xargs
Shell builtins	alias cd echo test unset wait
Searching	find grep
Documentation	man
Software development	ar ctags lex make nm strip yacc
Miscellaneous	bc cal expr lp od sleep true and false
Categories Standard Unix programs Unix SUS2008 utilities List

strings (Unix)

Contents

Overview[]

Example[]

See also[]

References[]

External links[]

The `strings` command
Operating system	Unix, Unix-like, Plan 9, Inferno
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Command