man > 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 characters 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 characters in string up to and
           including the first occurrence of character 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.

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

HISTORY
       The look utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix.

EXAMPLES
           sort -d /etc/passwd -o /tmp/look.dict
           look -t: root:foobar /tmp/look.dict

SEE ALSO
       grep(1), sort(1)

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY
       The look command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel
       Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.



util-linux 2.37.2                            2021-06-02                                      LOOK(1)