file command sees regular ASCII text file as ASCII Java program text

bbraml · 08-29-2013, 01:05 PM

I need some assistance. I have regular ASCII text documents. If any of those documents have the word "import" in it, the file command sees it as ASCII Java program text. If these same files do not have that word in it, they are seen as ASCII text. This causes a problem with what we are doing. The text documents recognized as ASCII Java program get blocked. Does anyone know if there is some kind of linux update or bug or something??? Point me on where or how to search Google for something for help?

eSelix · 08-29-2013, 04:44 PM

It is called "magic". You can instruct "file" command to ommit some tests. "file" command do the best to guess file type, for example looking inside file for searching some pattern which could reveal its type. If you do not want this behavior you can exclude some tests by adding "-e" option, for example

Code:

file -e tokens not_java_file_with_import_inside.txt

bbraml · 08-30-2013, 07:21 AM

-e is not a file command option
When I run it with the -e option it tells me file: invalid option -e

druuna · 08-30-2013, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbraml

-e is not a file command option
When I run it with the -e option it tells me file: invalid option -e

Is this on Linux or some Unix variant?

Code:

$ file --version
file-5.04
magic file from /etc/magic:/usr/share/misc/magic

One other thing; It should be tokens, not token:

Code:

$ file -e tokens not_java_file_with_import_inside.txt
tokens not_java_file_with_import_inside.txt: ASCII text

$ file not_java_file_with_import_inside.txt
tokens not_java_file_with_import_inside.txt: ASCII Java program text

bbraml · 08-30-2013, 08:08 AM

This is on RHEL 5.7 linux

Code:

$ file --version
file-5.04
magic file from /etc/magic:/usr/share/misc/magic

druuna · 08-30-2013, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbraml

This is on RHEL 5.7 linux

Code:

$ file --version
file-5.04
magic file from /etc/magic:/usr/share/misc/magic

Are you sure about that? RHEL 5.7 and file version 5.04?

This is on my RHEL 5.7 box:

Code:

$ cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.7 (Tikanga)

$ file --version
file-4.17
magic file from /usr/share/file/magic

Version 4 does not have an -e switch or something similar.

bbraml · 08-30-2013, 08:52 AM

Sorry,
one server is 5.1 and another is 5.6
both are running file version 4.17