Re: Why file content sniffing sucks

[Pat Smith <psmith imrm com>]

  I guess as an unix/linux admin I expect "file somefilename"  to tell
me the file type before I open it an editor or any other app, if there
is room for doubt. :)

  My only point being that the number of times I actually need that file
identified for me can be counted on 5 fingers on any given week.  Why
force a user to employ the feature every time they open their file
browser.  You're point that it is less broken then other methods of
context typing files is irrelevant, the question is it necessary?

  By the way I'm not knocking the feature, it's cool.  I just want to
know why I have to use it every time I open the file browser :)

to On Wed, 2003-12-24 at 11:25, iain wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-12-24 at 10:59 -0500, Pat Smith wrote:
> 
> >   As a long time Gnome user, I kind of question the need for forcing
> > what should be an optional feature on the user base. 
> 
> Why should it be an optional feature?
> [ ] Use really broken file identification based on extension type that
> can never be fixed
> [ ] Use file identification based on contents of file that can be fixed
> by tweaking algorithm
> 
> Hmmm, great options there.
> How do you ID the following files
> "README"
> "wine"
> "my-sexy-picture.jpg"
> 
> Hmmm, dunno, dunno, oh jpg...whoops, no, it was an executable trojan
> renamed to a jpg to trick me into running it.
> 
> Short less facetious answer: File content sniffing is less broken than
> any other method of IDing a filetype, and if it is broken, then the
> algorithm needs tweaking to make it better. It is not an "optional
> feature" and doesn't need to be.
> 
> iain
-- 
Pat Smith
UNIX Administrator
Iron Mountain Inc.
1000 Campus Drive
Collegeville, Pa 19465
610-831-2574
psmith imrm com



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