Strings (Unix): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:50, 27 February 2013

Revision as of 01:57, 27 February 2013

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It can be used on object files, and [[core dump]]s.

Strings are recognized by looking for sequences of at least 4 (by default) printable characters terminating in a NUL character (that is, [[null-terminated string]]s). 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 it to <tt>[[grep]]</tt> and <tt>[[Fold (Unix)|fold]]</tt> or redirecting the output to a [[Computer file|file]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Kiddle|first=Oliver |coauthors=Jerry Peek and Peter Stephenson|title=From Bash to Z Shell |origyearyear=20042005 |___location=New York, NY |publisher=Apress|isbn=978-1-59059590-37659376-69|page=413 |oclc=57450917 |url=http://www.apress.com/9781590593769}}</ref>

It is part of the [[GNU Binary Utilities]] (binutils), and has been ported to other operating systems including [[Microsoft Windows]].<ref>[[cygwin]]</ref>