#!/usr/bin/perl --


use strict;
use warnings;

my $file = 'test.png' ; # must exist
my $fileL = 'test.link'; # will be created/removed

checkit( $file );

warn 'Linking ', link( $file, $fileL );

checkit( $fileL );

warn 'UnLinking ', unlink( $fileL );

sub checkit {
    use File::MMagic;
    my  $mm = new File::MMagic; # use internal magic file
    print "Checking $_[0] => ", $mm->checktype_filename( $_[0]),$/;
}

__END__
Checking test.png => image/png
Linking 1 at file.mmagic.check.pl line 12.
Checking test.link => image/png
UnLinking 1 at file.mmagic.check.pl line 16.
[download]

What exactly do you mean? Do you want to inspect the link name and derrive from the file extension (e.g. jpg/jpeg) the type of file you're dealing with. Or are you opening the link and can you inspect the file content?

Update: See How do I post a question effectively?

And how do you want to determine the type? Just by looking at the extension? Or by looking into the file?

Also try Super Search, and the perl documentation.

I'm sorry I didn't specify correctly my problem.

I'm talking about symbolic links, and I want to determine the type just by looking at the extension.

(I don't mind looking into the file but I need the fastest way and I have the file extension in target file, so I think it would be better to use it...)
Im working in linux.

Thanks

I guess you're looking for readlink. A match for /\.jpe?g$/i should do the rest. However, if you cannot trust the suffix or if you are going for a more robust program, you should give the File::MMagic module a try.

I don't know if there's a pure perl solution, but you can install the program chase and parse its output in perl. Getting the extension should be a simple matter of regexes or split.