[X-Unix] So what is a dmg file?

[Ken Rossman]

On Thursday, January 22, 2004, at 10:02 AM, Victor Eijkhout wrote:
> At 8:50 +0100 2004/01/22, Kirk McElhearn wrote:
>> I would suspect because the file command doesn't have file info for 
>> OS X?
>
> From the man page it looks like it has a database.

The "file" command does indeed use a database of sorts, and you can even
look at it, and add to it yourself if you like.  It is called 
/etc/magic,
and it is a simple ASCII file that can be edited / appended to with a
regular text editor or other text manipulation tools.

Read the comments at the top for more info on how to add entries for
specific file types.

> How hard would it be for Apple to update that?

That'll probably get updated around the same time that all the other
older Berkeley Unix-isms in OSX get fixed up -- like many of the man
pages, which are just plain a little bit wrong here and there...


Ken Rossman
rossman at columbia.edu
G3 iBook/600MHz/640MB/10.2.8
G4 tower/400MHz/512MB/10.2.8