OK - the magic number it is then. I'll have to dig a bit to find out how to get that, but a very loose inspiration from 'file' should do it ... (my employer doesn't use GPL alas)
Thanks all for the help, Elise ---------- From: Peter Michael Kavanagh [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] <mailto:[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]> Sent: 28 August 2002 16:29 To: Huard, Elise - D C&W Consultant Subject: [Scottish] type of files Elise, Once was the day when all binary file standards used a "magic number" system where the first 4 bytes of a file could be decoded into four ascii characters. These coresponded to the commonly used three or four letter extention (pcx,jpeg,gds2,aud,wav). If you open up a common binary file in vi, chances are the first four chars look familiar. Then along came the 8.3 filenames and people just used the 3 letter extension. Most basic unix systems will read both the magic number and any extension and judge what the file is. You can do this with a standard binary read in C. Hope that helps. Peter Kavanagh (Not on the list, but feel free to fwd) *********************************************************************************** This email and any accompanying files are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, copy or disclose the content. If you have received this email in error please contact the sender by return email and delete this message. Thankyou for your co-operation. ************************************************************************************* _______________________________________________ Scottish mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish
