[File] Question regarding python bytecode mimetypes

[Mircea GLIGA]

Hello all,

I'm reiterating my question here, is this correct behavior?
For me, considering bytecode as text is a bug and should be fixed.

Thanks!


On 7/31/20 11:16 AM, Mircea GLIGA wrote:
> Hello all
> 
> I've been debugging a script which tries to identify text files based on
> their mimetypes in order to do some text replacements.[1]
> This used to work in the past and now, on a Manjaro machine with
> `file-5.39` the script incorrectly identifies Python byte code files,
> *.pyc, as textfiles. So after a text replacement they are rendered
> useless.
> 
> It seems it's related to this commit: 
> https://github.com/file/file/commit/eb373e431ccfeedfbcf497e4da07571d43bdb9f2 
> 
> My question is why are byte code files considered of type "text"?
> In the end, they are binary files, not text files.
> Is this considered normal behavior? Or a bug?
> 
> Comparing the output of two different `file` versions:
> 
>      $ file --version
>      file-5.39
>      $ file -b --mime-type numbers.pyc
>      text/x-bytecode.python
> 
> On a Debian machine:
> 
>      $ file --version
>      file-5.35
>      magic file from /etc/magic:/usr/share/misc/magic
>      $ file -b --mime-type numbers.pyc
>      application/octet-stream
> 
> Thanks and regards
> Mircea
> 
> [1] 
> https://git.buildroot.net/buildroot/tree/support/misc/relocate-sdk.sh?h=2020.02.4#n39 
> 
>