NAME
look – display lines beginning with a given string
SYNOPSIS
look [-df] [-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.
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.
The options are as follows:
- -d
-
Dictionary character set and order, i.e., only alphanumeric characters are compared.
- -f
-
Ignore the case of alphabetic characters.
- -t termchar
-
Specify a string termination character, i.e., only the characters in string up to and including the first occurrence of termchar are compared.
FILES
- /usr/share/dict/words
-
the dictionary
EXIT STATUS
The look utility exits 0 if one or more lines were found and displayed, 1 if no lines were found, or 1 if an error occurred.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
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
The look command appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.