Fine Free File Command

This is the home page for the open source implementation of the file(1) command that ships with every free operating system (OpenBSD, Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, etc.
Homepage:	http://www.darwinsys.com/file/
Function:	File Format Identification

Description

This is the home page for the open source implementation of the file(1) command that ships with every free operating system (OpenBSD, Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, etc.) and has been ported to most systems where people use free software (including OS/2, DOS, MS Windows, etc.).

User Experiences

• [2019-11-16] Linux and Unix file command tutorial with examples

Development Activity

All development activity is visible on GitHub: https://github.com/file/file/commits

Release Feed

Below the last 3 release feeds:

2026-06-08 20:14:23

[tag:github.com,2008:Repository/1303130/FILE5_48 FILE5_48]

by zoulasc

2026-02-27 14:58:13

[tag:github.com,2008:Repository/1303130/FILE5_47 FILE5_47]

by zoulasc

2024-11-27 15:37:46

[tag:github.com,2008:Repository/1303130/FILE5_46 FILE5_46]

by zoulasc

Activity Feed

Below the last 5 commits:

2026-06-09 20:39:31

[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/b610530d1e68c3dcb4b8255f4cb0b8e66dc3a892 PR/173: neheb: Allow U+0000 (NUL) in UTF-16/32 text detection]

by zoulasc https://github.com/zoulasc

2026-06-08 22:16:44

[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/558181b8a3a59644316b6ebd05dd8b82ffd5001f add missing endif]

by zoulasc https://github.com/zoulasc

2026-06-08 21:05:38

[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/bccec717f29897a571859ca374644bf233ccb88a comment out lrzip and explain why this time]

by zoulasc https://github.com/zoulasc

2026-06-08 20:27:11

[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/4e059e0b934be939ce53517f54cb33a605c7321b Fix LZ4 support, enable LRZIP]

by zoulasc https://github.com/zoulasc

2026-06-08 20:08:35

[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/b2ec6f7cd333ba633deb8049b31312a351d9fabf note lz4]

by zoulasc https://github.com/zoulasc

Informative references

• syntax of the File magic numbers