file command does not recognize perl module

Question

The file command (Debian Jessie) in does not recognize some Perl modules. For example: /usr/share/perl5/XML/SAX.pm (from libxml-sax-perl) gives:

$ file /usr/share/perl5/XML/SAX.pm
/usr/share/perl5/XML/SAX.pm: C++ source, ASCII text

The module starts with:

# $Id$

package XML::SAX;

use strict;
use vars qw($VERSION @ISA @EXPORT_OK);

When I remove the first two line, file sees it as a Perl module:

$ file tt
tt: Perl5 module source, ASCII text

Still, other modules starting with comment, such as /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/perl/5.20.2/Encode.pm are correctly identified.

Is this a bug? And where do I find the uncompiled mime data for /usr/share/file/magic.mgc?

Answer 1

The uncompiled data (it's not MIME data) for /usr/share/file/magic.mgc is in Magdir in the file(1) source code. The Perl magic in particular is defined in Magdir/perl. The issue you're seeing has been fixed; the fix is available in file versions 5.23 and later.