file
file
Purpose
Display the type of data in a file based on rules defined in the /usr/lib/magic file (this is known as the magic file).
Syntax
file [options] files
Options
-c displays a parsed form of a magic file (or the default one) and exits.
-m file1[:file2 : . . .] specifies other magic files.
-v displays the version number and exits.
-z looks inside compressed files.
Description
The file command uses rules specified in the /usr/lib/magic file to determine the type of data in the specified files. For example, you can use the file command to check the type of each file in the /usr/lib directory, as shown here:
file * | more
alchemist: directory
ao: directory
appletproxy.la: ASCII English text, with
very long lines
appletproxy.so: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), stripped
aspell: directory
autofs: directory
bash: directory
bcc: directory
bonobo: directory
bonobo-2.0: directory
bonobo_confConf.sh: ASCII English text, with
very long lines
bonoboConf.sh: ASCII English text, with
very long lines
bonoboxConf.sh: ASCII English text, with
very long lines
bonobox_printConf.sh: ASCII English text, with
very long lines
cracklib_dict.hwm:
data cracklib_dict.pwd:
data cracklib_dict.pwi:
data
(. . . lines deleted)
