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% file /usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/perl: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1, dyna +mically linked (uses shared libs), stripped
If an argument appears to be an ASCII file, file attempts to guess its language. The language tests look for par ticular strings (cf names.h) that can appear anywhere in ... routines also test for some miscellany (such as tar(1) archives) and determine whether an unknown file should be labelled as `ascii text' or `data'.