LOOK(1)



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)  was  given  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 blanks
              and alphanumeric characters are compared.  This is on by default
              if no file is specified.

              Note that blanks have been added to dictionary character set for
              compatibility with sort -d command since version 2.28.

       -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  charac-
              ters in string up to and including the first occurrence of char-
              acter are compared.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Display help text 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

ENVIRONMENT
       WORDLIST
              Path to a dictionary file.  The environment variable has greater
              priority than the dictionary path defined in FILES segment.

FILES
       /usr/share/dict/words
           the dictionary

       /usr/share/dict/web2
           the alternative dictionary

SEE ALSO
       grep(1), sort(1)

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 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux                         June 2011                           LOOK(1)

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