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look(1) General Commands Manual look(1) NAME look - Finds lines in a sorted list SYNOPSIS look [-df] [-tcharacter] string [file] The look command prints all lines in a sorted file that begin with string. OPTIONS Uses dictionary order; only letters, digits, tabs, and spaces are used in comparisons. Searches without regard to case; treats uppercase and lowercase as equivalent. Ignores character and characters following it in the search string. If you specify look -tC ABCDE, the string ABCDE would become (in effect) AB, with CDE being ignored. This option is primarily for shell scripts, in which more than one string is being processed. DESCRIPTION If no file is specified, look searches in the system word list /usr/share/dict/words, with the options -df assumed by default. The look command uses binary search. The -d and -f options affect comparisons as in sort. NOTES In order to use the -f option, you must first sort file with the sort -f command; otherwise, look displays only lowercase items. If you do not specify -f, but specify a file (such as /usr/share/dict/words) that has been sorted with sort -f, look may not produce any output. EXAMPLES To search a sorted file called sortfile for all lines that begin with the string as, enter: look as sortfile To search the system word list for all words beginning with smi, enter: look smi This might result in: smile smirk smith smithereens Smithfield Smithson smithy smitten FILES System word list. SEE ALSO Commands: grep(1), sort(1), spell(1) look(1)