Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
LOOK(1)			FreeBSD	General	Commands Manual		       LOOK(1)

NAME
     look -- display lines beginning with a given string

SYNOPSIS
     look [-df]	[-t termchar] string [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The look utility displays any lines in file which contain string as a
     prefix.  As look performs a binary	search,	the lines in file must be
     sorted.

     If	file is	not specified, the file	/usr/share/dict/words is used, only
     alphanumeric characters are compared and the case of alphabetic charac-
     ters is ignored.

     The following options are available:

     -d	     Dictionary	character set and order, i.e., only alphanumeric char-
	     acters are	compared.

     -f	     Ignore the	case of	alphabetic characters.

     -t	     Specify a string termination character, i.e., only	the characters
	     in	string up to and including the first occurrence	of termchar
	     are compared.

ENVIRONMENT
     The LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE environment variables affect	the execution
     of	the look utility.  Their effect	is described in	environ(7).

FILES
     /usr/share/dict/words  the	dictionary

DIAGNOSTICS
     The look utility exits 0 if one or	more lines were	found and displayed, 1
     if	no lines were found, and >1 if an error	occurred.

COMPATIBILITY
     The original manual page stated that tabs and blank characters partici-
     pated in comparisons when the -d option was specified.  This was incor-
     rect and the current man page matches the historic	implementation.

SEE ALSO
     grep(1), sort(1)

HISTORY
     A look utility appeared in	Version	7 AT&T UNIX.

BUGS
     Lines are not compared according to the current locale's collating	order.
     Input files must be sorted	with LC_COLLATE	set to `C'.

FreeBSD	11.1			 July 17, 2004			  FreeBSD 11.1

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | DIAGNOSTICS | COMPATIBILITY | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | BUGS

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=look&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+5.3-RELEASE>

home | help