Question

7

'file --mime-type' and 'mimetype' Commands Returning Different Results

rated 0 times [ 7] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 5873 / 3 Years ago, sun, november 21, 2021, 8:35:54

Hi I am trying to work out why PHP is returning an 'msword' file type when it should be 'excel' so have tested on my Ubuntu box using both the 'file' and 'mimetype' commands. As you can see from the results below they return different results. Can anybody explain why?

root@dev:~# file --mime-type 1.xls

1.xls: application/msword

root@dev:~# mimetype 1.xls

1.xls: application/vnd.ms-excel

I should also note the file in question is returning 'msword' on a Windows Server. It was generated using PHPExcel.

Thanks for your help.

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

amacal

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 457

Total Questions: 102

Total Answers: 116

Location: Thailand

Member since Thu, Apr 22, 2021

3 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago olouredping · Accepted Answer

file gets its results from /etc/mime.types.

From there:



application/mathematica-old

application/ms-tnef

application/msaccess                            mdb

application/msword                              doc dot

application/news-message-id

application/news-transmission

application/ocsp-request

application/ocsp-response

mimetype gets it from ...

ENVIRONMENT



   XDG_DATA_HOME

   XDG_DATA_DIRS

       These variables can list base directories to search for data files.

       The shared mime-info will be expected in the "mime" sub directory

       of one of these directories. If these are not set, there will be

       searched for the following directories:



               $HOME/.local/share/mime

               /usr/local/share/mime

               /usr/share/mime



       See also the "XDG Base Directory Specification"

       http://freedesktop.org/Standards/basedir-spec

       <http://freedesktop.org/Standards/basedir-spec>

Worth noting is this part in the man page for mimetype:

For naming switches I followed the manpage of file(1) version 4.02 when possible. They seem to differ completely from the spec in the 'utilities' chapter of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (POSIX).

So you might call it a bug against file /etc/mime.types since vnd.ms-excel is more accurate.