NAME
look - display lines beginning with a given string
SYNOPSIS
look [-dfa] [-t termchar] string [file]
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 (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/wordsis 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. (On by default if no file specified). |
| -f | Ignore the case of alphabetic characters. (On by default if no file specified). |
| -a | Use the alternate dictionary
/usr/share/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
/usr/share/dict/words | |
| the dictionary | |
/usr/share/dict/web2 | the alternate dictionary |
SEE ALSO
COMPATIBILITY
The original manual page stated that tabs and blank characters participated in comparisons when the -d option was specified. This was incorrect and the current man page matches the historic implementation.
HISTORY
Look appeared in Version 7 AT&T Unix.
AVAILABILITY
The look command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.
