How to check type of files without extensions in python

Question

I have a folder full of files and they don t have an extension  How can I check file types  I want to check the file type and change the filename accordingly  Let s assume a function filetype x  returns a file type like png  I want to do this   files   os listdir      for f in files      os rename f  f filetype f     How do I do this

User · Accepted Answer

There are Python libraries that can recognize files based on their content (usually a header / magic number) and that don't rely on the file name or extension.

If you're addressing many different file types, you can use python-magic. That's just a Python binding for the well-established magic library. This has a good reputation and (small endorsement) in the limited use I've made of it, it has been solid.

There are also libraries for more specialized file types. For example, the Python standard library has the imghdr module that does the same thing just for image file types.

If you need dependency-free (pure Python) file type checking, see filetype.

User · Answer

On unix and linux there is the file command to guess file types   There s even a windows port   From the man page      File tests each argument in an attempt to classify it   There are three   sets  of tests  performed in this order  filesystem tests  magic number   tests  and language tests   The first test  that   succeeds  causes  the   file type to be printed    You would need to run the file command with the subprocess module and then parse the results to figure out an extension   edit   Ignore my answer   Use Chris Johnson s answer instead

User · Answer

also you can use this code  pure python by 3 byte of header file    full path   os path join MEDIA ROOT  pathfile   try      image data   open full path   rb   read   except IOError      return  Incorrect Request          header byte   image data 0 3  encode  hex   lower    if header byte     474946       return  image gif  elif header byte     89504e       return  image png  elif header byte     ffd8ff       return  image jpeg  else      return  binary file       without any package install  and update version

User · Answer

import subprocess p   sub Popen  file yourfile txt   stdout sub PIPE  stderr sub PIPE  output  errors   p communicate   print output    As Steven pointed out  subprocess is the way  You can get the command output by the way above as this post said

User · Answer

The Python Magic library provides the functionality you need   You can install the library with pip install python-magic and use it as follows    gt  gt  gt  import magic   gt  gt  gt  magic from file  iceland jpg    JPEG image data  JFIF standard 1 01    gt  gt  gt  magic from file  iceland jpg   mime True   image jpeg    gt  gt  gt  magic from file  greenland png    PNG image data  600 x 1000  8-bit colormap  non-interlaced    gt  gt  gt  magic from file  greenland png   mime True   image png    The Python code in this case is calling to libmagic beneath the hood  which is the same library used by the  NIX file command  Thus  this does the same thing as the subprocess shell-based answers  but without that overhead

User · Answer

In the case of images  you can use the imghdr module    gt  gt  gt  import imghdr  gt  gt  gt  imghdr what  8e5d7e9d873e2a9db0e31f9dfc11cf47      You can pass a file name or a file object as first param  See doc for optional 2nd param   png    Python 2 imghdr doc Python 3 imghdr doc

User · Answer

With newer subprocess library  you can now use the following code   nix only solution    import subprocess import shlex  filename    your file  cmd   shlex split  file --mime-type  0   format filename   result   subprocess check output cmd  mime type   result split   -1  print mime type

User · Answer

You can also install the official file binding for Python  a library called file-magic  it does not use ctypes  like python-magic    It s available on PyPI as file-magic and on Debian as python-magic  For me this library is the best to use since it s available on PyPI and on Debian  and probably other distributions   making the process of deploying your software easier  I ve blogged about how to use it  also

User · Answer

Only works for Linux but Using the  sh  python module you can simply call any shell command  https   pypi org project sh    pip install sh     import sh      sh file   root file     Output   root file  ASCII text

[python] How to check type of files without extensions in python?

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