Xref: utzoo comp.sources.bugs:1389 comp.unix.wizards:12522
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.bugs,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: v05i028: /etc/magic lines for compress
Message-ID: <470@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 17 Nov 88 17:44:23 GMT
References: <1033@investor.UUCP> <454@auspex.UUCP> <7714@boring.cwi.nl> <6021@columbia.edu>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Followup-To: comp.unix.wizards
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 8

>Not only is this better,

This assertion has now been made twice.  I have yet to see any evidence
for its truth.  The strings in "/etc/magic" correspond, in at least the
two cases I cited (compressed files and packed files), to C-language
strings; could somebody please explain why expressing them as numbers in
a standard byte order, rather than as the strings they are, is somehow
"better"?