[ZODB-Dev] detect zodb with the unix tool 'file' (contrib)

[Jim Fulton]

2011/9/7 Stéphane Blondon <stephane.blondon at gmail.com>:
> 2011/9/7 Jim Fulton <jim at zope.com>:
>> 2011/9/6 Stéphane Blondon <stephane.blondon at gmail.com>:
>> ...
>>> # Cache file for the database of Zope (done by ClientStorage)
>>> 0       string  ZEC3    Zope Object Database Client Cache File (data)
>>
>> Question: What is the significance of "(data)"?
>
> It's a convention in order to help understanding what the file is. For
> that, the output of `file` should includes one of the words "text",
> "executable" or "data" in the description. I suppose it's mainly used
> for shell scripting (with a pipe to `grep`  for example).
>
> In the manpage of `file` on my system (Debian testing):
>  - "The type printed will usually contain one of the words _text_ (the
> file contains only printing characters and a few common control
> characters and is probably safe to read on an ASCII terminal),
> _executable_ (the file contains the result of compiling a program in a
> form understandable to some UNIX kernel or another), or _data_ meaning
> anything else (data is usually ‘binary’ or non-printable).  Exceptions
> are well-known file formats (core files, tar archives) that are known
> to contain binary data.  When adding local definitions to /etc/magic,
> make sure to _preserve_ _these_ _keywords_."
>
> That's why I added it. I know that some other descriptions paste the
> filetype in parenthesis at the end of the line. If you think there is
> a better description including the filetype, don't hesitate to say it.

No. If "data" means "somethings else" then that's clear enough for me. :)

Jim

-- 
Jim Fulton
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimfulton