file comand returns wrong mime type

English Applications
1

Hi,

I’m executing:

file -bi file_name

It’s returning application/x-awk.

The file is a text file. It’s the “BEGIN {}” on various lines that appears to be the magic mime type match.

I’m editing the file with Kate and/or Nano. I’ve reviewed the man page for file and didn’t see anything. Is there a way to tell file, no this isn’t awk, but text/plain (i.e., line added to file)? Is there a better way to handle this issue? The main issue at this time is with automation, when a file is used and then an action is taken based on the type.

Thank you.

2

“file” is probabalistic, it doesn’t guarantee 100% correctness and can be mistaken. You can tell file not to try certain tests.

3

Is the file extension txt? If not, if it’s a distinctive extension, then setting the extension to open with the editor in file associations may work.

4

The files in the directory don’t have an extension. The majority of the files are plain text, but that’s not a given. That’s why I was using the file command :slight_smile: I’m learn’n a bit here about mime types, but I always thought it was the first x-number of bytes of the file that was the indicator and not content in the entire file.

Thank you.