NAME
look —
display lines beginning with a given
string
SYNOPSIS
look |
[-df] [-t
termchar] string
[file] |
DESCRIPTION
Thelook 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.
Options:
-d- Dictionary character set and order, i.e. only alphanumeric characters are compared.
-f- Ignore the case of alphabetic characters.
-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
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.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
look appeared in
Version 7 AT&T UNIX.