LinuxQuestions.org - Extracting ASCII strings from a Binary files

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Extracting ASCII strings from a Binary files

Hi All,

Is there any alternative utility/command other then "strings" utility,
To extract ascii strings from a binary files.

I know using strings we can extract ascii string from a binary file. I am
working on Xen Server, and "string" utility was not present on this. Iam
looking for any other alternative commnad/utility to extract strings.

Please share your Ideas with me.

Thanks
Poorrej

Have you tried readelf

Code:

readelf -a {file}|less

You can try to compile the binutils source code (which provides the strings utility) by yourself. If you don't have root privileges you can always install it in your home directory (or just compile without actually installing), then simply copy the strings executable somewhere in your path (e.g. $HOME/bin) and delete the rest. However I suggest to compile an older version of binutils, which is lighter than the latest one. For the purpose of installing a single utility like strings, an older version should be fine.