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NAME

look - display lines beginning with a given string

SYNOPSIS

look string

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/dict/words is used, only alphanumeric characters are compared and the case of alphabetic characters is ignored.

Options:

-d
Dictionary character set and order, i.e. only alphanumeric characters are compared.
-f
Ignore the case of alphabetic characters.
-a
Use the alternate dictionary /usr/dict/web2
-t
Specify a string termination character, i.e. only the characters in string up to and including the first occurrence of termchar are compared.

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.

FILES


Pa /usr/dict/words the dictionary Pa /usr/dict/web2 the alternate dictionary

SEE ALSO

grep (1), sort (1)

COMPATIBILITY

The original manual page stated that tabs and blank characters participated in comparisons when the option was specified. This was incorrect and the current man page matches the historic implementation.

HISTORY

Look appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix.


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