LLVM-STRINGS(1)

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💅 LLVM-STRINGS(1) — the llvm-strings manual, but make it make sense

okay so this is page 1 of the LLVM manual set, and bestie, we're talking about llvm-strings. yes it's a real thing, yes it's iconic, let's go ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

llvm-strings — print strings. that's it. that's the whole name. short king energy fr fr 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

llvm-strings [options] [input...]

like, you give it options, you give it inputs, it does the thing. no cap 💅

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

okay so llvm-strings is a tool that is intended as a drop-in replacement for GNU's strings — you know, the classic. it goes looking for printable strings in files and writes them straight to the standard output stream. main character behaviour tbh 🫶

so what even is a printable string? literally any sequence of four (by default) or more printable ASCII characters. that's the vibe check. the end of the file, or any other byte, terminates the current sequence. bye bestie, sequence over 💀

llvm-strings looks for strings in each input file you specify. and here's the slay: unlike GNU strings, it looks in the entire input file, regardless of file format — it does not restrict the search to certain sections of object files. it's giving "no gatekeeping" 🌈

and if - is specified as an input, or if you specify no input at all, the program reads from the standard input stream. stdin girlies rise 🙈

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

here's the moment you've all been waiting for, the little demo:

$ cat input.txt
bars
foo
wibble blob
$ llvm-strings input.txt
bars
wibble blob

see how foo didn't make the cut? too short, babe. three characters, minimum is four, it's giving not enough 😭 the other two ate and left no crumbs 🔥

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • --all, -a — silently ignored. it does nothing. it is present purely for GNU strings compatibility. it's basically a decorative pillow, it's there for the aesthetic 🎀 (do not expect it to do anything, fr fr)
  • --bytes=<length>, -n — sets the minimum number of printable ASCII characters required for a sequence of bytes to be considered a string. the default value is 4. so if you want shorter or longer strings, this is your girl 💅
  • --help, -h — displays a summary of command line options. the classic "help me help you" 🫶
  • --print-file-name, -f — displays the name of the containing file before each string. so you always know who's talking. very "who said that" energy 👑

example, look at this gorgeous output:

$ llvm-strings --print-file-name test.o test.elf
test.o: _Z5hellov
test.o: some_bss
test.o: test.cpp
test.o: main
test.elf: test.cpp
test.elf: test2.cpp
test.elf: _Z5hellov
test.elf: main
test.elf: some_bss
  • --radix=<radix>, -t — displays the offset within the file of each string, before the string, and using the specified radix. valid <radix> values are o, d and x for octal, decimal and hexadecimal respectively. numbers girlies we love you ⭐

example time, all three flavours:

$ llvm-strings --radix=o test.o
    1054 _Z5hellov
    1066 .rela.text
    1101 .comment
    1112 some_bss
    1123 .bss
    1130 test.cpp
    1141 main
$ llvm-strings --radix=d test.o
    556 _Z5hellov
    566 .rela.text
    577 .comment
    586 some_bss
    595 .bss
    600 test.cpp
    609 main
$ llvm-strings -t x test.o
    22c _Z5hellov
    236 .rela.text
    241 .comment
    24a some_bss
    253 .bss
    258 test.cpp
    261 main
  • --version — displays the version of the llvm-strings executable. say hi to the version number, she's shy 🧚
  • @<FILE> — read command-line options from response file <FILE>. like a little note you pass to your bestie instead of yelling all the options across the room 💌

💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

llvm-strings exits with a non-zero exit code if there is an error. otherwise, it exits with code 0. so 0 = we ate, non-zero = something went wrong, check yourself bestie 😭

🐛 BUGS 🐛

to report bugs, please visit https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/labels/tools:llvm-strings/. the maintainers literally want to hear from you, don't be shy 🌸

👑 Author 👑

maintained by the LLVM Team (https://llvm.org/). legends, honestly 🫶

2003-2026, LLVM Project

ok that's the whole page, you're officially educated, go forth and find your strings bestie 💖

and that's a wrap on manual page 15, dated 2026-09-09, from LLVM-STRINGS(1) — version 15 of the page, LLVM-STRINGS(1) being the whole vibe. mwah, see you in the next one 🦋✨💜

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