STRINGS(1)

📦
version 2.47+3build2 · 7 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 STRINGS(1) 💖

okay so bestie, we're doing strings(1) today, straight outta the GNU Development Tools lineup, and honestly? underrated icon behavior. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

strings — print the sequences of printable characters in files

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

strings [-afovV] [-min-len]
        [-n min-len] [--bytes=min-len]
        [-t radix] [--radix=radix]
        [-e encoding] [--encoding=encoding]
        [-U method] [--unicode=method]
        [-] [--all] [--print-file-name]
        [-T bfdname] [--target=bfdname]
        [-w] [--include-all-whitespace]
        [-s] [--output-separator sep_string]
        [--help] [--version] file...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So for each file you hand it, GNU strings prints out the printable character sequences that are at least 4 characters long (or however long you told it with the options down below 💅) and that are followed by an unprintable character.

Now here's the vibe check: depending on how the strings program was configured, it'll default to either showing you all the printable sequences it can find in each file, or only the ones sitting in loadable, initialized data sections. And if the file type is unrecognizable — or if strings is just reading from stdin — it will always display all of the printable sequences it can find. no exceptions, periodt.

Also for backwards compatibility: any file that shows up after a command-line option of just - will also get scanned in full, regardless of whether a -d option is hanging around anywhere. iykyk.

Bottom line: strings is mainly useful for figuring out what's actually inside non-text files. it's giving detective energy 🔍

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -a, --all, - — scan the whole file, no matter what sections it contains or whether those sections are loaded or initialized. Normally this is the default behaviour, but strings can be configured so that -d is the default instead.

The - option is position dependent and forces strings to do full scans of any file that is mentioned after the - on the command line, even if the -d option has been specified. sneaky but iconic.

  • -d, --data — only print strings from initialized, loaded data sections in the file. This may reduce the amount of garbage in your output, but babes, it also exposes the strings program to any security flaws that may be present in the BFD library used to scan and load sections. 😭 strings can be configured so that this option is the default behaviour. In such cases the -a option can be used to avoid using the BFD library and instead just print all of the strings found in the file.
  • -f, --print-file-name — print the name of the file before each string. label your faves bestie 🏷️
  • --help — print a summary of the program usage on the standard output and exit.
  • -min-len, -n min-len, --bytes=min-len — print sequences of displayable characters that are at least min-len characters long. If you don't specify it, a default minimum length of 4 is used. The distinction between displayable and non-displayable characters depends on the setting of the -e and -U options. Sequences are always terminated at control characters such as new-line and carriage-return, but not the tab character.
  • -o — like -t o. Some other versions of strings have -o act like -t d instead. Since we can not be compatible with both ways, we simply chose one. 🤷‍♀️
  • -t radix, --radix=radix — print the offset within the file before each string. That single character argument specifies the radix of the offset: o for octal, x for hexadecimal, or d for decimal.
  • -e encoding, --encoding=encoding — select the character encoding of the strings that are to be found. Possible values for encoding are: s = single-7-bit-byte characters (default), S = single-8-bit-byte characters, b = 16-bit bigendian, l = 16-bit littleendian, B = 32-bit bigendian, L = 32-bit littleendian. Useful for finding wide character strings. (l and b apply to, for example, Unicode UTF-16/UCS-2 encodings). 🌈
  • -U [d|i|l|e|x|h], --unicode=[default|invalid|locale|escape|hex|highlight] — controls the display of UTF-8 encoded multibyte characters in strings. The default (--unicode=default) is to give them no special treatment, and instead rely upon the setting of the --encoding option. The other values for this option automatically enable --encoding=S.

The --unicode=invalid option treats them as non-graphic characters and hence not part of a valid string. All the remaining options treat them as valid string characters.

The --unicode=locale option displays them in the current locale, which may or may not support UTF-8 encoding. The --unicode=hex option displays them as hex byte sequences enclosed between <> characters. The --unicode=escape option displays them as escape sequences (\uxxxx) and the --unicode=highlight option displays them as escape sequences highlighted in red (if supported by the output device). The colouring is intended to draw attention to the presence of unicode sequences where they might not be expected. 👀 red flag but make it aesthetic

  • -T bfdname, --target=bfdname — specify an object code format other than your system's default format.
  • -v, -V, --version — print the program version number on the standard output and exit.
  • -w, --include-all-whitespace — by default tab and space characters are included in the strings that are displayed, but other whitespace characters, such a newlines and carriage returns, are not. The -w option changes this so that all whitespace characters are considered to be part of a string.
  • -s, --output-separator — by default, output strings are delimited by a new-line. This option allows you to supply any string to be used as the output record separator. Useful with --include-all-whitespace where strings may contain new-lines internally.
  • @file — read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not removed.

Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire option in either single or double quotes. Any character (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional @file options; any such options will be processed recursively. 🌀 it's giving infinite nesting, main character energy fr fr

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

ar(1), nm(1), objdump(1), ranlib(1), readelf(1) and the Info entries for binutils. go read ur siblings bestie, they're all iconic 💜

Copyright (c) 1991-2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

ok that's the whole page bestie, you're officially fluent in strings now 🎓✨ no cap.

anyway mwah, this was binutils-2.47, dated 2026-09-19 — and that's the STRINGS(1) tea. drink up 🍓💖

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