file man page on OpenIndiana

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file(1B) SunOS/BSD Compatibility Package Commands file(1B)

NAME
file - determine the type of a file by examining its contents

SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/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 rea‐
sons 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 refer‐
ences rather than the link itself.

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

EXAMPLES
Example 1 Using file on all the files in a specific user's directory.

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: symboliclink to /usr/project
script: executable shell script
titles: ascii text
s5.stuff: cpio archive

example%

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The environment variables LC_CTYPE, LANG, and LC_default control the
character classification throughout file. On entry to file, these envi‐
ronment 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 classi‐
fication 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

ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │compatibility/ucb │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘