file(1) equivalent?

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: file(1) equivalent? by Eliya (Vicar) on Jan 11, 2012 at 20:40 UTC
Most importantly, you need a "magic" file — typically `/etc/magic` (which is also used by the regular Unix `file` program). It contains the patterns that are used for recognizing file types. So if the idea is to use the Perl `file` utility on a non-Unix platform, don't forget to copy that magic file. (You can specify where it lives by setting the environment variable MAGIC.) Other than that, the utility only uses core Perl modules (FindBin, FileHandle, Getopt::Long). In other words, the installation steps would be download the tarball extract `ppt-0.14/bin/file` get hold of a magic file (unless on Unix) Note that this is an executable file, not a module, but you can of course also include the code (with minor modifications) into a program of your own...	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: file(1) equivalent? by Corion (Patriarch) on Jan 11, 2012 at 21:14 UTC
For modules, see File::MMagic and File::LibMagic and File::Mimeinfo.	[reply]
Re: file(1) equivalent? by toolic (Bishop) on Jan 11, 2012 at 20:18 UTC
You could download the tar ball from http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/C/CW/CWEST/ppt-0.14.tar.gz, then follow the instructions in the README file to install. Or, if you are on windows using ActiveState: `ppm install ppt` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: file(1) equivalent? by mr.nick (Chaplain) on Jan 11, 2012 at 21:12 UTC
I think the OP is looking for a callable function from inside his/her own scripts. The linked CPAN link isn't a module, but an external program. Which really confuses me ... why write a command-line utility that mimics another (other than for fun-n-profit)? However, OP, you can always wrap the functionality of that script up into a function of your own to use. Though I'm a bit surprised one doesn't already exist (I didn't search). Edit: How about File::Type? mr.nick ...	[reply]
Re^2: file(1) equivalent? by Eliya (Vicar) on Jan 11, 2012 at 21:26 UTC
why write a command-line utility that mimics another It is part of the "Perl Power Tools" / Unix Reconstruction Project — for which the README says "Our goal is quite simply to reimplement the classic Unix command set in pure Perl, and to have as much fun as we can doing so." (discontinued by now, AFAIK)	[reply]
Re^3: file(1) equivalent? by mr.nick (Chaplain) on Jan 11, 2012 at 21:33 UTC
Ha! I had totally forgotten about that project. Looks like it went dead between 2004 & 2006. Oh, duh the original link even had "ppt" in it and I didn't notice. Funny thing is if you go to the top level page for the project, the module I linked (File::Type) is listed there. mr.nick ...	[reply]
Re^4: file(1) equivalent? by JavaFan (Canon) on Jan 11, 2012 at 22:18 UTC
Re^2: file(1) equivalent? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 12, 2012 at 00:17 UTC
Which really confuses me ... why write a command-line utility that mimics another (other than for fun-n-profit)? Portability is a common reason. e.g. ExtUtils::MakeMaker reimplements some unix tools in Perl for this reason.	[reply]
Re: file(1) equivalent? by Anonymous Monk on Jan 12, 2012 at 02:22 UTC
See also App::Open - Library to drive the 'openit' command line tool, a commandline interface to launching programs via MIME associations mimeopen - Open files by mimetype File::MimeInfo::Applications - Find programs to open a file by mimetype Win32::GetDefaultBrowser - Return full path to default browser on Windows systems Win32::WebBrowser - open the default web browser on Win32 MIME::Types - Definition of MIME types LWP::MediaTypes - guess media type for a file or a URL Browser::Open - open a browser in a given URL	[reply]