Is there a CPAN module for this kind of thing?

There are numerous. Some of them even work on scalars, not only filehandles. Have a look at File::MimeInfo::Magic and File::LibMagic for a start.

For most similar tasks, yet not for your actual one you may find File::MMagic most useful.

Cheers, Sören

In reply to Re: Distinguishing text from binary data by Happy-the-monk
in thread Distinguishing text from binary data by Anonymous Monk

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