mimetype
Determine file type
see also :
file - update-mime-database
Synopsis
mimetype
[options] [-] files
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examples
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description
This script
tries to determine the mime type of a file using the Shared
MIME-info database. It is intended as a kind of
file(1) work-alike, but uses mimetypes instead of
descriptions.
If one symlinks
the file command to mimetype it will behave a
little more compatible, see
"--file-compat". Commandline
options to specify alternative magic files are not
implemented the same because of the conflicting data
formats. Also the wording of the descriptions will
differ.
For naming
switches I followed the manpage of file(1) version
4.02 when possible. They seem to differ completely from the
spec in the ’utilities’ chapter of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (
POSIX ).
options
-a,
--all
Show output of all rules that
match the file.
TODO:
this method now just returns one match for each method
(globs, magic, etc.).
-b,
--brief
Do not prepend filenames to
output lines (brief mode).
--database=mimedir:mimedir:...
Force the program to look in
these directories for the shared mime-info database. The
directories specified by the basedir specification are
ignored.
-d,
--describe
Print file descriptions instead
of mime types, this is the default when using
"--file-compat".
-D,
--debug
Print debug information about
how the mimetype was determined.
-f
namefile,
--namefile=namefile
Read the names of the files to
be examined from the file ’namefile’ (one per
line) before the argument list.
--file-compat
Make mimetype behave a little
more file(1) compatible. This is turned on
automatically when you call mimetype by a link called
’file’.
A single
’-’ won’t be considered a separator
between options and filenames anymore, but becomes identical
to "--stdin". ( You can still use
’--’ as separator, but that is not
backward compatible with the original file command. ) Also
the default becomes to print descriptions instead of
mimetypes.
-F string,
--separator=string
Use string as custom separator
between the file name and its mimetype or description,
defaults to ’:’ .
-h,
--help
-u, --usage
Print a help message and
exits.
-i,
--mimetype
Use mime types, opposite to
"--describe", this is the default when
_not_ using "--file-compat".
-L,
--dereference
Follow symbolic links.
-l code,
--language=code
The language attribute
specifies a two letter language code, this makes
descriptions being outputted in the specified language.
-M,
--magic-only
Do not check for extensions,
globs or inode type, only look at the content of the file.
This is particularly useful if for some reason you
don’t trust the name or the extension a file has.
-N,
--noalign
Do not align output fields.
--output-format
If you want an alternative
output format, you can specify a format string containing
the following escapes:
%f for the filename
%d description
%m mime type
Alignment is
not available when using this, you need to post-process the
output to do that.
--stdin
Determine type of content from
STDIN , less powerful then normal file
checking because it only uses magic typing. This will happen
also if the STDIN filehandle is a pipe.
To use this
option IO::Scalar needs to be installed.
-v,
--version
Print the version of the
program and exit.
copyright
Copyright (c) 2003, 2012 Jaap G Karssenberg. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY ; without even the
implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .
diagnostics
If a file has an empty mimetype or an empty description, most
probably the file doesn’t exist and the given name doesn’t match
any globs. An empty description can also mean that there is no
description available in the language you specified.
The program exits with a non-zero exit value if either the
commandline arguments failed, a module it depends on wasn’t found
or the shared mime-info database wasn’t accesable. See
File::MimeInfo for more details.
environment
XDG_DATA_HOME
XDG_DATA_DIRS
These variables can list base directories to search for data
files. The shared mime-info will be expected in the "mime" sub
directory of one of these directories. If these are not set,
there will be searched for the following directories:
$HOME/.local/share/mime
/usr/local/share/mime
/usr/share/mime
See also the " XDG Base Directory Specification"
http://freedesktop.org/Standards/basedir-spec
<http://freedesktop.org/Standards/basedir-spec>
files
The base dir for all data files is determined by two environment
variables, see " ENVIRONMENT ".
BASE/mime/packages/SOURCE.xml
All other files are compiled from these source files. To
re-compile them use update-mime-database(1).
BASE/mime/globs
Compiled information about globs.
BASE/mime/magic
Compiled information about magic numbers.
BASE/mime/MEDIA/SUBTYPE.xml
Descriptions of a mimetype in multiple languages, used for the
"--describe" switch.
todo
The ’--all’ switch doesn’t really show all matches, but only one
per mime-typing method. This needs to be implemnted in the
modules first.
bugs
No known bugs,
please mail the author if you find one.
mimetype
doesn’t provide a switch for looking inside compressed
files because it seems to me that this can only be done by
un-compressing the file, something that defeats the purpose.
On the other hand the option should exist for strict
compatibility with file(1). Possibly a subclass
should be made for this one day.
see also
file ,
update-mime-database ,
File::MimeInfo,
http://freedesktop.org/Software/shared-mime-info
<http://freedesktop.org/Software/shared-mime-info>
author
Jaap
Karrssenberg <pardus[:at:]cpan[:dot:]org>