ahupp/python-magic
Python Magic
python-magic is a C-binding wrapper that provides a Python interface for the libmagic system library. It functions as a file signature analyzer and MIME type detector, identifying file formats by comparing header bytes against a database of known binary signatures.
The library enables the identification of file types from both file paths and raw data buffers. It supports custom file signature matching through the injection of user-provided magic databases, allowing for the detection of specialized or proprietary formats.
The project covers binary data analysis and MIME type mapping to translate internal identification codes into standardized media type strings.
Features
- Magic Byte File Identification - Identifies file types by matching header magic bytes against a database of known binary signatures.
- Binary Data Analysis - Examines byte streams and buffers to determine the original file format or encoding.
- libmagic Wrappers - Acts as a Python wrapper for the libmagic C library to identify file types via header bytes.
- MIME Type Detection - Determines the human-readable description or MIME type of data streams and byte buffers.
- MIME Type Detectors - Determines the MIME type of files and data buffers based on the magic database.
- File Type Inference - Determines the format of a file by comparing its header bytes against a database of signatures.
- MIME Type Mappings - Translates internal identification codes into standardized internet media type strings for interoperability.
- Custom Magic Databases - Supports the use of custom signature databases to detect specialized or proprietary file formats.
- File Signature Analyzers - Compares file byte sequences against a database to produce human-readable descriptions of file formats.
- Custom Signature Matching - Uses specialized magic databases to identify proprietary or niche file formats.
- In-Memory Byte Stream Processing - Provides the ability to analyze binary data sequences directly in memory to identify file types without disk persistence.
- C-Library Bindings - Provides a Python interface for programmatic access to the underlying libmagic C library.
- Data Loading Extraction - Wrapper for libmagic.
- File System Utilities - Interface for libmagic to detect file types.
