file(1)                                                             file(1)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      file - determine file type

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      file [-m mfile] [-c] [-f ffile] [-h] file ...

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      file performs a series of tests on each file in an attempt to classify
      it.  If file appears to be an ASCII file, file examines the first 512
      bytes and tries to guess its language.  If file is an executable a.out
      file, file prints the version stamp, provided it is greater than 0
      (see the description of the -V option in ld(1)).

      file uses the file /etc/magic to identify files that have some sort of
      magic number, that is, any file containing a numeric or string
      constant that indicates its type.  Commentary at the beginning of
      /etc/magic explains the format.

    Options    [Toc]    [Back]
      file recognizes the following command-line options:

           -m mfile       Use alternate magic file mfile.

           -c             Check the magic file for format errors.  This
                          validation is not normally carried out for reasons
                          of efficiency.  No file classification is done
                          when this option is specified.

           -f ffile       Obtain the list of files to be examined from file
                          ffile.  file classifies each file whose name
                          appears in ffile.

           -h             Do not follow symbolic links.

 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES    [Toc]    [Back]
    Environment Variables
      LC_MESSAGES determines the language in which messages are displayed.

      If LC_MESSAGES is not specified in the environment or is set to the
      empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for each
      unspecified or empty variable.  If LANG is not specified or is set to
      the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of
      LANG.

      If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, file
      behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C".  See
      environ(5).

    International Code Set Support    [Toc]    [Back]
      Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.  However,
      all non-ASCII text files are identified as "data".



 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 file(1)                                                             file(1)




 WARNINGS    [Toc]    [Back]
      The file command for a release interprets the core files for that
      particular release correctly.  Using the file command on a core file
      generated on a different release will report incorrect results.

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      ld(1).

 STANDARDS CONFORMANCE    [Toc]    [Back]
      file: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG4


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003