Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Detecting type of file in a program
Message-ID: <2104@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 10 Feb 89 23:14:36 GMT
References: <192@henry.ece.utexas.edu> <9587@smoke.BRL.MIL> <949@auspex.UUCP>
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: comp.unix.questions
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 21

In article <949@auspex.UUCP> guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris) writes:
>
>Note, of course, that:
>
>	1) the set of known magic numbers is not "constant" in any
>	   sense, so you have to pick a set and hope it's sufficient (or
>	   let "file" do it, if your system supports an S5-style "file",
>	   and make sure the "/etc/magic" file is up-to-date and
>	   complete);

Hokay, mah innorance is REALLY gonna show, now.

At least this is c.u.q and not c.u.w...

Just what are magic numbers for and of what significance is the /etc/magic
file.  Every once in a while I get an error saying something about bad
magic numbers or whatnot, and I usually just punt.  What's the scoop?

				--Blair
				  "Amaze your friends and coworkers:
				   alias Presto-chango 'mv -f * /bit/bucket'"