From: "C. Harald Koch" <chk(_at_)utcc(_dot_)utoronto(_dot_)ca> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 16:29:52 -0400 In message <199807211613(_dot_)MAA12788(_at_)math(_dot_)gatech(_dot_)edu>, Richard Coleman writes:In general, you cannot tell the MIME-type of a file by magic numbers.In general, no. But for most common files (images, word documents, etc.) th e file type is pretty trivial to determine; witness the file(1) command and /etc/magic file.
...and also witness how often file(1) gets the answer wrong. Still, it can be a useful way to provide a default even if I wouldn't want it to always use the result of file(1). Chris -- Chris Garrigues Deep Eddy Internet Consulting +1 512 432 4046 609 Deep Eddy Avenue O- http://www.DeepEddy.Com/~cwg/ Austin, TX 78703-4513 My email address is an experiment in SPAM elimination: If it starts with cwg-dated..., it is *only* valid for 2 weeks. If it starts with cwg-sender..., *only* the person the message was intended for can reply to it. If it starts with cwg-anythingelse, it's an application/destination specific address, and I'll know where you got the address from.
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