misc-utils/look.1

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  32 .\"     @(#)look.1      8.1 (Berkeley) 6/14/93
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  34 .TH LOOK 1 "June 2011" "util-linux" "User Commands"
  35 .SH NAME
  36 look \- display lines beginning with a given string
  37 .SH SYNOPSIS
  38 .B look
  39 [options]
  40 .IR "string " [ file ]
  41 .SH DESCRIPTION
  42 The
  43 .B look
  44 utility displays any lines in
  45 .I file
  46 which contain
  47 .IR string .
  48 As
  49 .B look
  50 performs a binary search, the lines in
  51 .I file
  52 must be sorted (where
  53 .BR sort (1)
  54 was given the same options
  55 .BR "\-d " and/or " \-f " that
  56 .B look
  57 is invoked with).
  58 .PP
  59 If
  60 .I file
  61 is not specified, the file
  62 .I /usr/share/dict/words
  63 is used, only alphanumeric characters are compared and the case of
  64 alphabetic characters is ignored.
  65 .SH OPTIONS
  66 .TP
  67 .BR \-a , " \-\-alternative"
  68 Use the alternative dictionary file.
  69 .TP
  70 .BR \-d , " \-\-alphanum"
  71 Use normal dictionary character set and order, i.e. only alphanumeric characters
  72 are compared.  (This is on by default if no file is specified.)
  73 .TP
  74 .BR \-f , " \-\-ignore\-case"
  75 Ignore the case of alphabetic characters.  (This is on by default if no file is
  76 specified.)
  77 .TP
  78 .BR \-t , " \-\-terminate " \fIcharacter\fR
  79 Specify a string termination character, i.e. only the characters
  80 in \fIstring\fR up to and including the first occurrence of \fIcharacter\fR
  81 are compared.
  82 .TP
  83 .BR \-V , " \-\-version"
  84 Display version information and exit.
  85 .TP
  86 .BR \-h , " \-\-help"
  87 Display help text and exit.
  88 .PP
  89 The
  90 .B look
  91 utility exits 0 if one or more lines were found and displayed, 1 if
  92 no lines were found, and >1 if an error occurred.
  93 .SH EXAMPLE
  94 .RS
  95 .nf
  96 sort -d /etc/passwd -o /tmp/look.dict
  97 look -t: root:foobar /tmp/look.dict
  98 .nf
  99 .RE
 100 .SH FILES
 101 .IX Header "FILES"
 102 .IP "\fB/usr/share/dict/words\fR" 4
 103 the dictionary
 104 .IP "\fB/usr/share/dict/web2\fR" 4
 105 the alternative dictionary
 106 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 107 .BR grep (1),
 108 .BR sort (1)
 109 .SH COMPATIBILITY
 110 The original manual page stated that tabs and blank characters participated
 111 in comparisons when the \fB\-\-alphanum\fR option was specified.  This was
 112 incorrect, and the current man page matches the historic implementation.
 113 .SH HISTORY
 114 The
 115 .B look
 116 utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix.
 117 .SH AVAILABILITY
 118 The look command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 119 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.