file: binary or text?

[leandro_sa]

hello..
i am trying to write a code that could detect if an arbitrary file is either binary or text mode.

any help would be appreciated 😕

[bad76]

Hi,
You can get some char and look if they are all displayable char (ascii >32 and <128)...

[leandro_sa]

You can get some char and look if they are all displayable char (ascii >32 and <128)...

i thought about something like that, but what if the text file contains some special chars like á, ê, ü ???
their ascii codes are greater than 128.. 🙁

[bad76]

Yes, but in head of file? if you read just 256 chars, you can get an esteeme don't so bad...

[leandro_sa]

now i've tried the following code, and it seems to work, altough looks quite lame :rolleyes:

$output = file -b $physicalFile;
if(!eregi("text", $output))
{
// binary
}
else
{
// text
}

anyone would know a better way??