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Name

Synopsis

Availability

SUNWscpu

Description

file performs a series of tests on each filename in an attempt to determine what it contains. If the contents of a file appear to be ASCII text, file examines the first 512 bytes and tries to guess its language.

file uses the file /etc/magic to identify files that have some sort of magic number, that is, any file containing a numeric or string constant that indicates its type.

Options

-c

Check for format errors in the magic number file. For reasons of efficiency, this validation is not normally carried out. No file type-checking is done under -c.

-f ffile

Get a list of filenames to identify from ffile.

-L

If a file is a symbolic link, test the file the link references rather than the link itself.

-m mfile

Use mfile as the name of an alternate magic number file.

Examples

This example illustrates the use of file on all the files in a specific user’s directory:

example% pwd
/usr/blort/misc
example% /usr/ucb/file  *

code:

mc68020 demand paged executable

code.c:    

c program text

counts:

ascii text

doc:

roff, nroff , or eqn input text

empty.file:

empty

libz:

archive random library

memos:

directory

project:

symbolic link to /usr/project

script:

executable shell script

titles:

ascii text

s5.stuff:

cpio archive

example%

Environment

The environment variables LC_CTYPE , LANG , and LC _default control the character classification throughout file. On entry to file, these environment variables are checked in the following order: LC_CTYPE , LANG , and LC _default. When a valid value is found, remaining environment variables for character classification are ignored. For example, a new setting for LANG does not override the current valid character classification rules of LC_CTYPE . When none of the values is valid, the shell character classification defaults to the POSIX.1 ‘C’ locale.

Files

/etc/magic

See Also

Bugs

file often makes mistakes. In particular, it often suggests that command files are C programs.

file does not recognize Pascal or LISP.

Table of Contents

• Name
• Synopsis
• Availability
• Description
• Options
• Examples
• Environment
• Files
• See Also
• Bugs