determining a binary file

debdas · 05-01-2003, 11:00 PM

How can I determine whether a file is a binary file or not using c programming. Especially when the file extensio is not available to us or a it is a file that has no extension.

soothsayer · 05-01-2003, 11:25 PM

type

file filename

and it will give a description of the file

Nukes · 05-02-2003, 01:13 PM

if you want to write a C program for this, take a look at the manpages for file and magic and maybe at the source code for file. There isn't really an easy way of explaining it here, but each file has a 'magic number' that identifies its type. Look at the manpages and you should see what I mean. you could just call the code for file as a routine in your program.

debdas · 05-05-2003, 06:18 AM

Is it a bad programming practice to execute the file shell command using the system() function. I have used that in my code right now...

Pls. advice