file man page on Solaris

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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
		       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
       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		     │SUNWscpu			   │
       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘

SEE ALSO
       magic(4), attributes(5)

BUGS
       file often makes mistakes.  In particular, it often suggests that  com‐
       mand files are C programs.

       file does not recognize Pascal or  LISP.

SunOS 5.10			  14 Sep 1992			      file(1B)
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