7.58. file

The file utility did not contain a "magic" pattern for detecting QED images and was therefore not able to detect such images. A new "magic" pattern for detecting QED images has been added, and the file utility now detects these images as expected.

The file utility did not contain a "magic" pattern for detecting VDI images and was therefore not able to detect such images. A new "magic" pattern for detecting VDI images has been added, and the file utility now detects these images as expected.

Previously, the file utility did not attempt to load "magic" patterns from the ~/.magic.mgc file, which caused "magic" patterns stored in this file to be unusable. This update modifies the file utility so it now attempts to load the ~/.magic.mgc file. The file is loaded if it exists and "magic" patterns defined in this file work as expected.

Previously, the file utility used read timeout when decompressing files using the "-z" option. As a consequence, the utility was not able to detect files compressed by the bzip2 tool. The underlying source code has been modified so that file no longer uses read timeout when decompressing compressed files. Compressed files are now detected as expected when using the "-z" option.

Previously, the file utility contained multiple "magic" patterns to detect output of the "dump" backup tool. On big-endian architectures, the less detailed "magic" pattern was used and output of the file utility was inconsistent. The less detailed "magic" pattern has been removed, and only one, more detailed, "magic" pattern to detect "dump" output is used now.