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Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form in the Sun OS Reference Manual, from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2004 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between these versions and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html. 6 .\" This notice shall appear on any product containing this material. 7 .\" The contents of this file are subject to the terms of the Common Development and Distribution License (the "License"). 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If applicable, add the following below this CDDL HEADER, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]" replaced with your own identifying information: Portions Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner] 10 .TH FILE 1 "August 29, 2013" 11 .SH NAME 12 file \- determine file type 13 .SH SYNOPSIS 14 .LP 15 .nf 16 \fB/usr/bin/file\fR [\fB-dh\fR] [\fB-m\fR \fImfile\fR] [\fB-M\fR \fIMfile\fR] [\fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR] \fIfile\fR... 17 .fi 18 19 .LP 20 .nf 21 \fB/usr/bin/file\fR [\fB-dh\fR] [\fB-m\fR \fImfile\fR] [\fB-M\fR \fIMfile\fR] \fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR 22 .fi 23 24 .LP 25 .nf 26 \fB/usr/bin/file\fR \fB-i\fR [\fB-h\fR] [\fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR] \fIfile\fR... 27 .fi 28 29 .LP 30 .nf 31 \fB/usr/bin/file\fR \fB-i\fR [\fB-h\fR] \fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR 32 .fi 33 34 .LP 35 .nf 36 \fB/usr/bin/file\fR \fB-c\fR [\fB-d\fR] [\fB-m\fR \fImfile\fR] [\fB-M\fR \fIMfile\fR] 37 .fi 38 39 .LP 40 .nf 41 \fB/usr/xpg4/bin/file\fR [\fB-dh\fR] [\fB-m\fR \fImfile\fR] [\fB-M\fR \fIMfile\fR] [\fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR] \fIfile\fR... 42 .fi 43 44 .LP 45 .nf 46 \fB/usr/xpg4/bin/file\fR [\fB-dh\fR] [\fB-m\fR \fImfile\fR] [\fB-M\fR \fIMfile\fR] \fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR 47 .fi 48 49 .LP 50 .nf 51 \fB/usr/xpg4/bin/file\fR \fB-i\fR [\fB-h\fR] [\fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR] \fIfile\fR... 52 .fi 53 54 .LP 55 .nf 56 \fB/usr/xpg4/bin/file\fR \fB-i\fR [\fB-h\fR] \fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR 57 .fi 58 59 .LP 60 .nf 61 \fB/usr/xpg4/bin/file\fR \fB-c\fR [\fB-d\fR] [\fB-m\fR \fImfile\fR] [\fB-M\fR \fIMfile\fR] 62 .fi 63 64 .SH DESCRIPTION 65 .sp 66 .LP 67 The \fBfile\fR utility performs a series of tests on each file supplied by 68 \fIfile\fR and, optionally, on each file listed in \fIffile\fR in an attempt to 69 classify it. If the file is not a regular file, its file type is identified. 70 The file types directory, \fBFIFO\fR, block special, and character special are 71 identified as such. If the file is a regular file and the file is zero-length, 72 it is identified as an empty file. 73 .sp 74 .LP 75 If \fIfile\fR appears to be a text file, \fBfile\fR examines the first 512 76 bytes and tries to determine its programming language. If \fIfile\fR is a 77 symbolic link, by default the link is followed and \fBfile\fR tests the file to 78 which the symbolic link refers. 79 .sp 80 .LP 81 If \fIfile\fR is a relocatable object, executable, or shared object, \fBfile\fR 82 prints out information about the file's execution requirements. This 83 information includes the machine class, byte-ordering, static/dynamic linkage, 84 and any software or hardware capability requirements. If \fIfile\fR is a 85 runtime linking configuration file, \fBfile\fR prints information about the 86 target platform, including the machine class and byte-ordering. 87 .sp 88 .LP 89 By default, \fBfile\fR will try to use the localized magic file 90 \fB/usr/lib/locale/\fIlocale\fR/LC_MESSAGES/magic\fR, if it exists, to identify 91 files that have a magic number. For example, in the Japanese locale, \fBfile\fR 92 will try to use \fB/usr/lib/locale/ja/LC_MESSAGES/magic\fR. If a localized 93 magic file does not exist, \fBfile\fR will utilize \fB/etc/magic\fR. A magic 94 number is a numeric or string constant that indicates the file type. See 95 \fBmagic\fR(4) for an explanation of the format of \fB/etc/magic\fR. 96 .sp 97 .LP 98 If \fIfile\fR does not exist, cannot be read, or its file status could not be 99 determined, it is not considered an error that affects the exit status. The 100 output will indicate that the file was processed, but that its type could not 101 be determined. 102 .SH OPTIONS 103 .sp 104 .LP 105 The following options are supported: 106 .sp 107 .ne 2 108 .na 109 \fB\fB-c\fR\fR 110 .ad 111 .RS 12n 112 Checks the magic file for format errors. For reasons of efficiency, this 113 validation is normally not carried out. 114 .RE 115 116 .sp 117 .ne 2 118 .na 119 \fB\fB-d\fR\fR 120 .ad 121 .RS 12n 122 Applies any position-sensitive and context-sensitive default system tests to 123 the file. 124 .RE 125 126 .sp 127 .ne 2 128 .na 129 \fB\fB-f\fR \fIffile\fR\fR 130 .ad 131 .RS 12n 132 \fIffile\fR contains a list of the files to be examined. 133 .RE 134 135 .sp 136 .ne 2 137 .na 138 \fB\fB-h\fR\fR 139 .ad 140 .RS 12n 141 When a symbolic link is encountered, this option identifies the file as a 142 symbolic link. If \fB-h\fR is not specified and \fIfile\fR is a symbolic link 143 that refers to a non-existent file, the \fBfile\fR utility identifies the file 144 as a symbolic link, as if \fB-h\fR had been specified. 145 .RE 146 147 .sp 148 .ne 2 149 .na 150 \fB\fB-i\fR\fR 151 .ad 152 .RS 12n 153 If a file is a regular file, this option does not attempt to classify the type 154 of file further, but identifies the file as a "regular file". 155 .RE 156 157 .sp 158 .ne 2 159 .na 160 \fB\fB-m\fR \fImfile\fR\fR 161 .ad 162 .RS 12n 163 .sp 164 .ne 2 165 .na 166 \fB\fB/usr/bin/file\fR\fR 167 .ad 168 .RS 22n 169 Uses \fImfile\fR as an alternate magic file, instead of \fB/etc/magic\fR. 170 .RE 171 172 .sp 173 .ne 2 174 .na 175 \fB\fB/usr/xpg4/bin/file\fR\fR 176 .ad 177 .RS 22n 178 Specifies the name of a file containing position-sensitive tests that are 179 applied to a file in order to classify it (see \fBmagic\fR(4)). If the \fB-m\fR 180 option is specified without specifying the \fB-d\fR option or the \fB-M\fR 181 option, position-sensitive default system tests are applied after the 182 position-sensitive tests specified by the \fB-m\fR option. 183 .RE 184 185 .RE 186 187 .sp 188 .ne 2 189 .na 190 \fB\fB-M\fR \fIMfile\fR\fR 191 .ad 192 .RS 12n 193 Specifies the name of a file containing position-sensitive tests that are 194 applied to a file in order to classify it (see \fBmagic\fR(4)). No 195 position-sensitive default system tests nor context-sensitive default system 196 tests are applied unless the \fB-d\fR option is also specified. 197 .RE 198 199 .sp 200 .LP 201 If the \fB-M\fR option is specified with the \fB-d\fR option, the \fB-m\fR 202 option, or both, or if the \fB-m\fR option is specified with the \fB-d\fR 203 option, the concatenation of the position-sensitive tests specified by these 204 options is applied in the order specified by the appearance of these options. 205 .SH OPERANDS 206 .sp 207 .LP 208 The following operands are supported: 209 .sp 210 .ne 2 211 .na 212 \fB\fIfile\fR\fR 213 .ad 214 .RS 8n 215 A path name of a file to be tested. 216 .RE 217 218 .SH USAGE 219 .sp 220 .LP 221 See \fBlargefile\fR(5) for the description of the behavior of \fBfile\fR when 222 encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes). 223 .SH EXAMPLES 224 .LP 225 \fBExample 1 \fRDetermining if an Argument is a Binary Executable Files 226 .sp 227 .LP 228 The following example determine if an argument is a binary executable file: 229 230 .sp 231 .in +2 232 .nf 233 file "$1" | grep \(miFq executable && 234 printf "%s is executable.\en" "$1" 235 .fi 236 .in -2 237 .sp 238 239 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 240 .sp 241 .LP 242 See \fBenviron\fR(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables 243 that affect the execution of \fBfile\fR: \fBLANG\fR, \fBLC_ALL\fR, 244 \fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR. 245 .SH EXIT STATUS 246 .sp 247 .LP 248 The following exit values are returned: 249 .sp 250 .ne 2 251 .na 252 \fB\fB0\fR\fR 253 .ad 254 .RS 6n 255 Successful completion. 256 .RE 257 258 .sp 259 .ne 2 260 .na 261 \fB\fB>0\fR\fR 262 .ad 263 .RS 6n 264 An error occurred. 265 .RE 266 267 .SH FILES 268 .sp 269 .ne 2 270 .na 271 \fB\fB/etc/magic\fR\fR 272 .ad 273 .RS 14n 274 \fBfile\fR's magic number file 275 .RE 276 277 .SH ATTRIBUTES 278 .sp 279 .LP 280 See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: 281 .sp 282 283 .sp 284 .TS 285 box; 286 c | c 287 l | l . 288 ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE 289 _ 290 CSI Enabled 291 _ 292 Interface Stability Standard 293 .TE 294 295 .SH SEE ALSO 296 .sp 297 .LP 298 \fBcrle\fR(1), \fBelfdump\fR(1), \fBls\fR(1), \fBmagic\fR(4), 299 \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBenviron\fR(5), \fBlargefile\fR(5), \fBstandards\fR(5)