Questions tagged [file-command]
file - determine file type.
43
questions
21
votes
4
answers
29k
views
Linux file command classifying files
I need to recognize type of data contained in random files. I am new to Linux.
I am planning to use the file command to understand what type of data a file has. I tried that command and got the ...
- 347
20
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What does “magic tests” mean for the file command?
I was reading about the file command and I came across something I don't quite understand:
file is designed to determine the kind of file being queried.... file
accomplishes this by performing ...
- 884
19
votes
5
answers
78k
views
How to find files by file type?
I know I can find files using find: find . -type f -name 'sunrise'. Example result:
./sunrise
./events/sunrise
./astronomy/sunrise
./schedule/sunrise
I also know that I can determine the file type ...
- 2,334
17
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Why does "file xxx.src" lead to "cannot open `xxx.src' (No such file or directory)" but has an exit status of 0 (success)?
Why does file xxx.src lead to cannot open `xxx.src' (No such file or directory) but has an exit status of 0 (success)?
$ file xxx.src ; echo $?
xxx.src: cannot open `xxx.src' (No such file or ...
- 457
15
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How can the dynamic linker/loader itself be dynamically linked as reported by `file`?
Consider the shared object dependencies of /bin/bash, which includes /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (dynamic linker/loader):
ldd /bin/bash
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fffd0887000)
libtinfo.so.6 =>...
- 3,789
14
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How does the file command distinguish text and LaTeX files?
I have a number of files (Jupyter notebooks, .ipynb) which are text files. All of these contain some LaTeX markup. But when I run file, I get:
$ file nb_*
nb_1.ipynb: ASCII text
nb_2....
- 265
13
votes
2
answers
672
views
What's the story behind command file's suggestion?
While I'm reading file(1) I noticed this in the man page (emphasis mine):
When adding local definitions to /etc/magic, make sure to preserve these keywords.
Users depend on knowing that all the ...
- 1,129
10
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Finding a file type assuming wrong extension
I have an image archive I keep up. Sometimes, the sites I pull them from reformat the file while keeping the extension the same, most often making PNG images into JPG's that are still named ".png". ...
- 363
10
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Fast way to determine if a file is a SQLite database
I am looking for a way to determine file types in a folder with thousands of files. File names do not reveal much and have no extension, but are different types. Specifically, I am trying to determine ...
- 113
9
votes
2
answers
6k
views
file command apparently returning wrong MIME type
Why doesn't the following return text/csv?
$ echo 'foo,bar\nbaz,quux' > temp.csv;file -b --mime temp.csv
text/plain; charset=us-ascii
I used this example for extra clarity but I'm also ...
- 203
8
votes
2
answers
844
views
How did file identify this particular file?
I'm running file against a wallet.dat file (A file that Bitcoin keeps its private keys in) and even though there doesn't seem to be any identifiable header or string, file can still tell that it's a ...
- 2,338
8
votes
3
answers
2k
views
file(1) and magic(5) : describing other formats
Can I use file and magic ( http://linux.die.net/man/5/magic ) to override the description of some other known formats ?
for example, I would like to describe the following formats:
BED: http://...
- 1,673
7
votes
5
answers
16k
views
Bash script: check if a file is a text file [closed]
I am writing a menu based bash script, one of the menu options is to send an email with a text file attachment. I am having trouble with checking if my file is a text file. Here is what I have:
...
- 73
7
votes
1
answer
398
views
file(1) and magic(5) : prioritizing a result
My question follows that one: file(1) and magic(5) : describing other formats .
I want to describe a FASTA sequence ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASTA_format)
It could be a DNA sequence (with only ...
- 1,673
6
votes
5
answers
12k
views
How to find image files by content
I have a list of files and I need to find all the image-files from that list.
For example, if my list contained the following:
pidgin.tar.gz
photo01.jpg
picture01
screenshot.gif
invoice.pdf
Then I ...
- 24.4k
6
votes
1
answer
341
views
What could cause strange behavior in file(1) command?
What could cause file(1) command to output application/msword application/msword (yes, twice in a row) as the mime type for some of the .doc files? Normally it prints just application/msword.
If run ...
- 6,943
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
More sophisticated file command for deep inspection?
Sometimes it seems that the standard file command (5.04 on my Ubuntu system) is not sophisticated enough (or I am just using it wrong, which could well be).
For example when I run it on an .exe file, ...
- 55.1k
5
votes
1
answer
24k
views
How to check the file type in a script
I want to do a loop for all the images in a directory. The images doesn't have extension so I have to read the first bytes of the image to know its type. The loop should end up being something like.
...
user96101
4
votes
3
answers
7k
views
How to list only JPEG files from root below using the command line?
I am searching for a method to find only JPEG files/
With my limited knowledge of Linux I came to this point:
list all paths that exist from root below with find /
pipe the result into next command ...
- 25.1k
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
how can I read a number with file (magic)?
I would like to write the format of a drawing with "file drawing"
Files start like:
CAD
A1
mm
(Blank after A1)
or:
CAD
A00
m
(Blank after "m")
I tried somethings like in the file magic:
0 ...
- 43
4
votes
1
answer
258
views
file/libmagic: What is the "ID3 length"?
The man pages of the file command/libmagic are talking about a datatype called "ID3 length".
The only explanation i found was:
A 32-bit ID3 length
So what is this for a type ? Is it related to the ...
- 435
3
votes
1
answer
333
views
How can I create a file that just contains a binary number?
I would like to create a file that just contains a binary number. I think that touch can be used to create an empty file, but is there any way I can fill it with a binary number e.g. 10 (ten)? And how ...
- 1,593
3
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How to list files on terminal so that we can see the file types such executable, ascii etc?
I have been trying to list files in directory using ls and passing it different options.
Does it have the ability to list types of files as well ? I want to know which ones are executable , ...
- 227
3
votes
2
answers
458
views
Test for a particular file format
This is a followup to Normal looking text file, detected by file as ASCII Pascal program text
It seems file can't be trusted all the time.
It seems possible that a particular file may be detected ...
- 5,175
3
votes
0
answers
363
views
Output of command file, when file is INI file
I'm trying to understand the output of the file command when used on an INI-file. I create a file like this ("DOS" line endings are crucial, otherwise it is recognized as an ascii text file)
;Trying ...
- 1,891
2
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How to find human-readable information about file types recognized by `file`?
Searching, googling, I could not find any information about file types recognized by file.
For example, an *.mp4 file is identified as "ISO Media" (while being able to play with VLC normally). This ...
- 4,290
2
votes
1
answer
126
views
Why does linux recognise a C# .cs file as a C++ source file?
I used the file command on a c# source file, and linux thought it was a c++ file. What is the reason for this?
- 23
2
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Detect file-type with the help of magic-file and rename file-suffix accordingly
I have a folder (the iPhone Backup) with various files without a suffix.
I want to run a batch process over these files, which detects each file's file-type (with the help of the magic-file database (...
- 534
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
File command database and identifying text files
Please let me know if below two statements are correct or not:
Folder /usr/share/mime/magic has a database/table that will give me what are the current possible file formats (outputs that I can get ...
- 347
1
vote
2
answers
450
views
/usr/bin/file exit status always 0
I'm trying to use /usr/bin/file to detect file types in a program but also would like it to report if the file does not exist. However the command always returns exit status 0.
Besides grepping the ...
- 111
1
vote
3
answers
3k
views
Find file by magic pattern maching
There is a bash command file(1) which outputs a file's contents type according to the matching pattern definitions in the /etc/magic and /usr/share/misc/magic.
Is there a way to use these pattern ...
user32916
1
vote
1
answer
138
views
file command does not recognize perl module
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/...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
133
views
List of all file command outputs?
The file -b <path> command seems useful for scripting (filtering file types, not necessarily by extension). But for that you have to know the actual string output for your target filetype(s)
If ...
- 113
1
vote
1
answer
912
views
file command output for a non-ASCII text file in AIX and Linux [closed]
I am getting different output while using file command in AIX vs Linux.
File contents :
D|P_APAC_PH_PHINGTF00240_20150731031225|APAC|PH|NN (L) SPEK DYWIDENDOWYCH RYNKÓW WSCHODZCYCH||4|20130308|PHN|...
1
vote
1
answer
13k
views
Check if a file is a text file in bash
I am trying to make a check to see if the file being attached to the email is a text file, and if it is not it returns an error. However during testing, I provide a valid text.txt and it returns the "...
- 33
1
vote
2
answers
3k
views
how to move all files from a pipe into a directory ?
I performed a file-command on all elements in my Desktop directory:
~/Desktop > file *
then I grepped all the lines who have the string "image" in the description:
~/Desktop > file * | grep "...
- 25.1k
1
vote
1
answer
266
views
libmagic (file) database "use" and "clear" type
I am currently writing a parser for the libmagic database (used by the file command) and i don't found any information on the 'use' and 'clear' type (second column in the magic file).
Can someone ...
- 435
1
vote
2
answers
1k
views
`file` doesn’t show proper mime-type for .m2ts files
I need to define mime type of various video files and I got a problem with .m2ts files. Before I stumbled on this, I used file utility with -iL keys and parsed the output with sed. Today I found that ...
- 892
0
votes
5
answers
288
views
How to open a file based on the output of the `file` command
So I have a directory where I wish to open the only file in that directory that is human readable. I use file * to print the type of each file, and one file shows as ASCII-text. How can I redirect ...
0
votes
0
answers
89
views
Something like file command which also checks file headers for encodings?
I'm using the file command to detect mime type and text encoding, and it's working great in general.
But one situation it doesn't work so great for is with a HTML file. It's returning us-ascii, but if ...
- 144
0
votes
0
answers
158
views
More detailed version of "file"
A year ago I've used a more advanced version of file, I think this was on a Debian based linux and it was in their main repository.
Compared to file, it would show some more information such as if ...
- 141
0
votes
1
answer
319
views
file command misclassifying python bytecode as dBase III DBT file
I'm using cx-Freeze to freeze a PyQt5 application. On my Jenkins slave running OSX 10.13, when cx-Freeze is using the file command to check the type of the files, it classifies a .pyc file (python ...
0
votes
1
answer
581
views
Ubuntu 18.04 think C/C++ source code file is plain text
When I try to create a C/C++ source file
touch test.cpp
Usually it will generate a file which type is C source code file. But today I got a plain text file.
And I write a simple program in it like:
#...
