FileType

FileType is a file type detection engine written in C. It will appeal to coders looking for functionality similar to that provided by the 'file' command. FileType is compact (less than 20K binary), efficient, and very portable. The code can be included in other programs.

Original Author: Paul L Daniels
Original Release Date: Feb 21, 2003
Sourced From: Xamime - http://www.xamime.com
URL: http://www.pldaniels.com/filetype

To install filetype, unzip and untar the file.


bash-3.00$ gunzip filetype-0.1.3.tar.gz
bash-3.00$ tar -xvf filetype-0.1.3.tar
x filetype-0.1.3, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/filetype.1, 1577 bytes, 4 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/filetype-compile.1, 974 bytes, 2 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/CHANGELOG, 4106 bytes, 9 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/README, 2004 bytes, 4 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/CONTRIBUTORS, 324 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/LICENSE, 1476 bytes, 3 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/INSTALL, 578 bytes, 2 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/TODO, 216 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/Makefile, 1122 bytes, 3 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/makefile.vc, 915 bytes, 2 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/filetype.c, 20476 bytes, 40 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/libfiletype.c, 53362 bytes, 105 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/libfiletype.h, 5745 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/filetype-compile.c, 2076 bytes, 5 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/logger.c, 7723 bytes, 16 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/logger.h, 581 bytes, 2 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/pldstr.c, 21344 bytes, 42 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/pldstr.h, 949 bytes, 2 tape blocks
x filetype-0.1.3/filetype.list, 7875 bytes, 16 tape blocks

Install the file from the root account. To do so, change the current working directory to the one in which the filetype files were placed when you extracted them from the tar file, then run make and make install. If you have problems when you run the make command on a Solaris system, see Solaris Make Errors.

Expected output from make:


# /usr/ccs/bin/make
cc -Wall -Werror -g  -c pldstr.c
cc -Wall -Werror -g  -c logger.c
cc -Wall -Werror -g  -c libfiletype.c
cc -Wall -Werror -g  -c filetype-compile.c
cc -Wall -Werror -g  pldstr.o logger.o libfiletype.o filetype-compile.o -o filetype-compile
cc -Wall -Werror -g  -c filetype.c
cc -Wall -Werror -g  pldstr.o logger.o libfiletype.o filetype.o -o filetype

If you receive a "strip: not found error" message during the make install step on a Solaris system, you will need to adjust your path to include the location of the strip command.


# make install
make: not found
# /usr/ccs/bin/make install
strip filetype-compile
sh: strip: not found
*** Error code 1
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `install'

On a Solaris 10 installation on an Intel-based PC, I found strip in several locations.

# find / -name strip -print /usr/ccs/bin/amd64/strip /usr/ccs/bin/strip /usr/sfw/i386-sun-solaris2.10/bin/strip /opt/sfw/lib/bin/strip /opt/sfw/lib/i386-pc-solaris2.10/bin/strip

You can add the /usr/ccs/bin directory to root's path with PATH=$PATH:/usr/ccs/bin.

Once the path is set, you will still encounter another error, because the cp command on Solaris doesn't recognize the -v option. The -v option, which is available on Linux systems, just instructs the copy command to provide verbose information during the copy process.

 
# make install
strip filetype-compile
strip filetype
./filetype-compile filetype.list filetype.spec
Reading in text database...
110 types read in...
Clearing database...
Reading in binary database...
110 types read in from binary database
Types database verified.
cp -v filetype filetype-compile /usr/local/bin
cp: illegal option -- v
Usage: cp [-f] [-i] [-p] [-@] f1 f2
       cp [-f] [-i] [-p] [-@] f1 ... fn d1
       cp -r|-R [-H|-L|-P] [-f] [-i] [-p] [-@] d1 ... dn-1 dn
*** Error code 2
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `install'

To solve that problem, edit Makefile, which will be in the directory where you extracted the files from the tar archive. Remove the -v from the cp -v lines in the following sections of Makefile.


install:        filetype-compile filetype
        strip filetype-compile
        strip filetype
        ./filetype-compile filetype.list filetype.spec
        cp -v filetype filetype-compile /usr/local/bin
        cp -v filetype.spec /etc
        cp -v filetype.1 /usr/local/man/man1
        cp -v filetype-compile.1 /usr/local/man/man1

validate: filetype filetype-compile
        ./filetype-compile filetype.list filetype.spec
        cp -v filetype.spec validate
        cp -v filetype validate

You should then, hopefully, be able to run the make install command successfully.


# make install
strip filetype-compile
strip filetype
./filetype-compile filetype.list filetype.spec
Reading in text database...
110 types read in...
Clearing database...
Reading in binary database...
110 types read in from binary database
Types database verified.
cp filetype filetype-compile /usr/local/bin
cp filetype.spec /etc
cp filetype.1 /usr/local/man/man1
cp filetype-compile.1 /usr/local/man/man1

You should then be able to use the command to determine a file type for a given file.


# /usr/local/bin/filetype /home/jsmith/av71_en.exe
/home/jsmith/av71_en.exe                      "DosExe" (.exe DOS EXE)

For many files, the file type information will be similar to what you would get with the file command, which is likely already on your system.


# file /home/jsmith/av71_en.exe
/home/jsmith/av71_en.exe:     DOS executable (EXE)

The man file for filetype is placed in /usr/local/man/man1. If you get a "No manual entry for filetype" error message when you type man filetype, that directory isn't in your man path. You can access the filetype man file with man -M /usr/local/man filetype.



User Commands                                         filetype(1)

NAME
     filetype - file type reporting program

SYNOPSIS
     filetype [ -s filetype-spec file ] [ -h, --help ] [  -v,  --
     version  ] [ -d, --debug ] [ --log-stdout ] [ --log-stderr ]
     [ --log-syslog ] [ -f namefile ] file ...

DESCRIPTION
     This manual page documents version  0.0.1  of  the  filetype
     command.   filetype tries to classify each file given to it.
     The file(s) to classify can be given on the command line  as
     usual  file arguments (i.e. after the options), or in a file
     where the files to classify are listed on separate lines, or
     in standard input.  filetype tests against a binary database
     with information about file types, which should  be  located
     at  /etc/filetype.spec unless you specify otherwise with the
     -s option.  If the file is known, information  about  it  is
     printed  on  standard output. Otherwise the tag "Unknown" is
     used.

OPTIONS
     -s filetype-spec file
          Use this file to test against rather than  the  default
          /etc/filetype.spec

     -h, --help
          Show usage.

     -v, --version
          Show version.

     -d, --debug
          Print debugging messages (warning: large output)

     --log-stdout
          Send verbose/debug output to stdout.

     --log-stderr
          Send verbose/debug output to stderr.

     --log-stdout
          Send verbose/debug output to stdout.

     --log-stderr
          Send verbose/debug output to stderr.

     --log-syslog
          Send verbose/debug output to syslog if available.

     -f namefile
          A file (or stdin if '-') containing a list of files  to
          test.  Multiple file list can be used by using multiple
          '-f file' arguments.

     file(1), filetype-compile(1), libfiletype(2).

Download FileType
Developer's Website
MoonPoint Support

References: