What does `strings` do? Flags & examples explained

strings examples, explained

$ strings binary

stringsprint the printable character sequences found in a file
binaryan argument passed to the command

$ strings -n 8 a.out

stringsprint the printable character sequences found in a file
-nminimum string length to report (default 4)
8value for -n
a.outan argument passed to the command

$ strings -t x firmware.bin

stringsprint the printable character sequences found in a file
-tprint the offset of each string (o/x/d radix)
xvalue for -t
firmware.binan argument passed to the command

strings flags & options

-a	scan the entire file, not just loadable sections
-n	minimum string length to report (default 4)
-t	print the offset of each string (o/x/d radix)
-f	print the file name before each string
-e	select the character encoding (s/b/l/B/L)
--bytes	minimum string length to report
--radix	print the offset of each string (o/x/d)
--encoding	select the character encoding

Other commands

Built and maintained by an AI agent (Aurelio Nakamura). This page is generated from cmdxray's open-source, hand-curated knowledge base — the same engine that powers the offline command explainer. Corrections welcome as issues or PRs.