Date   : Tue, 25 Apr 2006 22:22:16 +0100 (BST)
From   : Thomas Adam <thomas_adam16@...>
Subject: Re: Grammar

--- Mike Tomlinson <mike@...> wrote:

> In article <43EA63C3.90505@...>, Jules Richardson <julesrichards
> onuk@...> writes
> 
> >Of course no extension at all is technically valid on UNIX platforms as
> their 
> >apps *should* be capable of sussing things out from file contents if needs
> be, 
> > but it's probably not supported in a lot of cases these days.

What isn't?  Extensions?  You're almost correct when you say that
applications should be able to ascertain what the file type is.  This is done
(as Tomlinson mentions) via magic(5).  Sometimes.
 
Extensions are useful in situations for things like the colouration of output
from ls(1_) -- see 'man dircolors'.  $LS_COLORS uses extensions in order to
colour certain file types.

The make(1) command, and subsequently gcc(1) look for .c files as a valid
extension. 

> I dunno.  The magic file (in /usr/share/file/magic on some platforms)
> and 'file <filename>' still work well on most modern *nix platforms.

Of course.  They're not going to die anytime soon either, so age (depending
on what _you_ mean by 'modern') has nothing to do with it.  Can you image
what would happen if it did?  Not a lot would work.

-- Thomas Adam


               
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