1.TH FILE __CSECTION__ "Copyright but distributable"
2.\" $Id: file.man,v 1.39 2001/04/27 22:48:33 christos Exp $
3.SH NAME
4file
5\- determine file type
6.SH SYNOPSIS
7.B file
8[
9.B \-bciknsvzL
10]
11[
12.B \-f
13.I namefile
14]
15[
16.B \-m
17.I magicfiles
18]
19.I file
20\&...
21.br
22.B file
23.B -C
24[
25.B \-m
26magicfile ]
27.SH DESCRIPTION
28This manual page documents version __VERSION__ of the

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150.SH OPTIONS
151.TP 8
152.B \-b
153Do not prepend filenames to output lines (brief mode).
154.TP 8
155.B \-c
156Cause a checking printout of the parsed form of the magic file.
157This is usually used in conjunction with
158.B \-m
159to debug a new magic file before installing it.
160.TP 8
161.B \-C
162Write a magic.mgc output file that contains a pre-parsed version of
163file.
164.TP 8
165.BI \-f " namefile"
166Read the names of the files to be examined from
167.I namefile
168(one per line)
169before the argument list.
170Either
171.I namefile
172or at least one filename argument must be present;
173to test the standard input, use ``\-'' as a filename argument.

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181it handles files recognised by the command itself (such as many of the
182text file types, directories etc), and makes use of an alternative
183``magic'' file.
184(See ``FILES'' section, below).
185.TP 8
186.B \-k
187Don't stop at the first match, keep going.
188.TP 8
189.BI \-m " list"
190Specify an alternate list of files containing magic numbers.
191This can be a single file, or a colon-separated list of files.
192.TP 8
193.B \-n
194Force stdout to be flushed after checking each file. This is only useful if
195checking a list of files. It is intended to be used by programs that want
196filetype output from a pipe.
197.TP 8

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