NAME

magic - determine file type

SYNOPSIS

magic [-f namefile] [-C] [-v key] pathname...

DESCRIPTION

Magic performs a series of tests on each given pathname in an attempt to classify it. If an argument appears to be an ASCII file, magic tries to guess its language.

The -f option instructs magic to read the names of the files to examine from namefile. The special name ``-'' may be used to read the names of the files from the standard input.

The -C option causes magic to produce output in the same format as file(1). (The default is to arrange the pathnames and descriptions into left-justified columns.)

The -v option causes magic to print verbose output for files corresponding to the key argument. Run magic with no arguments to get a current usage message.

CAVEATS

The -c and -m magicfile options of file(1) are accepted for compatibility but otherwise ignored.

There are always more magic numbers magic doesn't know about.

magic isn't.

AUTHOR

DaviD W. Sanderson (dws @cs.wisc.edu)

COPYRIGHT

\s+2Copyright 1992 by DaviD W. Sanderson\s0