LOOK(1)                    OpenBSD Reference Manual                    LOOK(1)

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 charac-
     ters is ignored.

     The options are as follows:

     -d      Dictionary character set and order, i.e., only alphanumeric char-
             acters 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.

     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.

FILES
     /usr/share/dict/words  the dictionary

SEE ALSO
     grep(1), sort(1)

COMPATIBILITY
     The original manual page stated that tabs and blank characters partici-
     pated in comparisons when the -d option was specified.  This was incor-
     rect and the current man page matches the historic implementation.

HISTORY
     The look command appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

OpenBSD 2.9                      June 14, 1993                               1
