FILE(1) USER COMMANDS FILE(1)
NAME
file - determine the type of a file by examining its contents
SYNOPSIS
file [ -f ffile ] [ -cL ] [ -m mfile ] filename...
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.
EXAMPLE
This example illustrates the use of file on all the files in
a specific user's directory:
example% pwd
/usr/blort/misc
example% 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 charac-
ter 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
locale(5), magic(5)
BUGS
file often makes mistakes. In particular, it often suggests
that command files are C programs.
Does not recognize Pascal or LISP.
Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 2 October 1989
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