huschi.net

LOOK(1)                          User Commands                         LOOK(1)

NAME
       look - display lines beginning with a given string
SYNOPSIS
       look [options] string [file]
DESCRIPTION
       The  look  utility displays any lines in file which contain string.  As
       look performs a binary search, the lines in file must be sorted  (where
       sort(1) got the same options -d and/or -f that look is invoked with).
       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.
OPTIONS
       -a, --alternative
              Use the alternative dictionary file.
       -d, --alphanum
              Use  normal  dictionary  character  set  and  order,  i.e.  only
              alphanumeric characters are compared.  (This is on by default if
              no file is specified.)
       -f, --ignore-case
              Ignore  the  case  of  alphabetic  characters.   (This  is on by
              default if no file is specified.)
       -t, --terminate character
              Specify a string termination character, i.e. only the characters
              in  string up to and including the first occurrence of character
              are compared.
       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.
       -V, --version
              Output version information and exit.
       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.
EXAMPLE
              sort -d /etc/passwd -o /tmp/look.dict
              look -t: root:foobar /tmp/look.dict
FILES
       /usr/share/dict/words
           the dictionary
       /usr/share/dict/web2
           the alternative dictionary
SEE ALSO
       grep(1), sort(1)
COMPATIBILITY
       The original manual page stated that tabs and blank characters partici-
       pated in comparisons when the alphanum option was specified.  This  was
       incorrect,  and  the  current man page matches the historic implementa-
       tion.
HISTORY
       The look utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix.
AVAILABILITY
       The look command is part of the util-linux  package  and  is  available
       from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux                         June 2011                           LOOK(1)