

file                         Command                         file




Guess a file's type

ffiillee _f_i_l_e ...

file examines  each file  and takes an  educated guess as  to its
type.  file recognizes the following classes of text files: files
of commands  to the  shell; files containing  the source for  a C
program; files  containing yacc or lex  source;  files containing
assembly language source;  files containing unformatted documents
that can be  passed to nroff; and plain text  files that fit into
none of the above categories.

file recognizes the  following classes of non-text or binary data
files:  the various  forms of  archives,  object files,  and link
modules  for  various  machines,  and miscellaneous  binary  data
files.

***** See Also *****

commands, ls, size

***** Notes *****

Because file  only reads  a set amount  of data to  determine the
class of a text file, mistakes can happen.































COHERENT Lexicon                                           Page 1


