On Wed, Apr 07, 2010 at 07:31:11AM -0700, dave wrote: > On Wed, 2010-04-07 at 08:45 -0400, Kent A. Reed wrote: > > > > Use magic file extensions if you must but please don't make them > > mandatory. That's a "convenience" that has driven me mad in the M$ world. > > > > Regards, > > Kent > > > IRRC some types of files use a magic number (identifier) as the first > entry in the file.
Yes, unix has long avoided reliance on filename extension, but it does use magic. Try "man magic" or "man file" When we begin a script with "#!" (as in #!/bin/bash), that is supplying the 16 bit "magic". (There's some history at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_(Unix)" , under the heading "As magic number" ) The "file" command identifies file type primarily by interpreting a file's magic, if it's not a directory, or otherwise identified by the filesystem itself. We can write a bash script, and give it a useful name without extension, so it looks like a simple verb when we use it. Or we can call the bash script "some_verb.perl". It will still be run through the bash interpreter, because of its magic. The extension does nothing. Erik -- "Those who live by the GUI, die by the GUI" - Duncan Roe, on luv-main ML. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
