---
name: "look"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/look"
---

# look(1)

display lines beginning with a given string

## 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

[grep(1)](/grep/1.md), [sort(1)](/sort/1.md)

## 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.