in reply to Re^2: Portable way to extract string from a binary (strings.pl)
in thread Portable way to extract string from a binary

Hmm, while I take your point about looking for null termination the code you present does not work for me. The first issue is this: 

C:\>strings.pl myscript.exe
Quantifier in {,} bigger than 32766 before HERE mark in regex m/([\n\t
+ -~]{ << HERE 4,32768})\0/

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After reducing the $max value down to 32766 to keep the RE happy it fails to find 'This program cannot be run in DOS mode' which it certainly should: 

C:\>strings.pl myscript.exe
RES>
.text
`.rdata
@.data
5@e@

C:\>type strings.pl
my( $min, $max ) = ( 4, 32766 );
local( $/ ) = \(32*1024);
my $prev = '';
while( <> ) {
    $prev .= $_;
    while( $prev =~ /([\n\t -~]{$min,$max})\0/g ) {
        print "$1\n";
    }
    $prev =~ s/.*\0//s;
}

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The bug (on win32 and Mac) is not allowing \r. BTW it took me about 5 minutes to realise what ' -~' was doing :-) I have written it longhand octol for slow learners like me. There is a CRLF before the terminating $ in the assembly. 

C:\>strings.pl myscript.exe
!This program cannot be run in DOS mode.
$
RES>
.text
`.rdata
@.data
5@e@

C:\>type strings.pl
my( $min, $max ) = ( 4, 32766 );
local( $/ ) = \(32*1024);
my $prev = '';
while( <> ) {
    $prev .= $_;
    while( $prev =~ /([\t\r\n\040-\176]{$min,$max})\0/g ) {
        print "$1\n";
    }
    $prev =~ s/.*\0//s;
}

C:\>

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cheers

tachyon

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