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 following options are available:

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

ENVIRONMENT

     The LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE environment variables affect the execution
     of the look utility.  Their effect is described in environ(7).

FILES

     /usr/share/dict/words  the dictionary

DIAGNOSTICS

     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.

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.

SEE ALSO

     grep(1), sort(1)

HISTORY

     A look utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

BUGS

     Lines are not compared according to the current locale's collating order.
     Input files must be sorted with LC_COLLATE set to `C'.