LLVM-STRINGS(1)

💅 LLVM-STRINGS(1) — the LLVM girly's guide to llvm-strings

okay so this is llvm-strings(1), straight out of the LLVM manual set — yes bestie, the same LLVM you already know and love 💖

✨ NAME ✨

llvm-strings — it prints strings 🎀 that's it, that's the whole vibe.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

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

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so llvm-strings is a tool that is intended as a drop-in replacement for GNU's strings 👑 — it goes looking for printable strings inside files and writes them straight out to the standard output stream. iconic behavior honestly.

and what counts as a printable string, you ask? it's literally any sequence of four (by default, okurrr) or more printable ASCII characters ✨. the end of the file terminates the current sequence, and like... any other byte terminates it too. no cap, that's the rule.

here's the part where it's lowkey different from GNU: llvm-strings looks for strings in each input file specified. but unlike GNU strings, it looks in the entire input file — regardless of file format 💀 — instead of restricting the search to certain sections of object files. main character energy: it reads the whole thing.

and if - is specified as an input, or if you specify no input at all? it reads from the standard input stream 🫶 easy.

🌸 EXAMPLE 🌸

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

see how foo didn't make it? only three chars bestie, the vibe check said no 🙈 (four is the minimum, remember!)

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --all, -a — silently ignored. it's just there for GNU strings compatibility, so like... it does nothing, it's decorative, it's an accessory 🎀
• --bytes=<length>, -n — sets the minimum number of printable ASCII characters required for a sequence of bytes to count as a string ✨. the default value is 4.
• --help, -h — displays a summary of command line options. your lil map of everything 🗺️
• --print-file-name, -f — displays the name of the containing file before each string 👑 which file did this string come from? now you know.

example:

$ 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, using the specified radix 🔥. valid <radix> values are o, d and x for octal, decimal and hexadecimal respectively, iykyk.

example:

$ 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 ⭐
• @<FILE> — reads command-line options from response file <FILE> 🧚 cute lil options-in-a-file moment.

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💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

llvm-strings exits with a non-zero exit code if there is an error 😭. otherwise? it exits with code 0 🎉 slay.

🍓 BUGS 🍓

to report bugs, please visit https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/labels/tools:llvm-strings/ — go off, file that issue, the maintainers wanna hear it 🫶

👑 Author 👑

maintained by the LLVM Team (https://llvm.org/) 💜

🌈 Copyright 🌈

2003-2026, LLVM Project

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and that's the whole page, bestie — this was page 23 of the LLVM-STRINGS(1) manual, dated 2026-10-20, from the LLVM source. go find some strings, ily, bye 💖✨🎀