How do I locate a string in a binary file? (No, not the strings command.)

I know about the very useful “strings” command. It will print all the printable strings in a binary file.

But what I want is a command that will tell me the location (in bytes or whatever — I’ll take anything.) of a string in a binary file. Is there a way to get this in Linux?

Answer

The strings command has the ability to display the starting location in bytes of the string using the “-td” option. Below is an example output. The first number is the starting byte number, so the string “linux” below starts at byte 1876 in the file.

1876 linux