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Attention: /usr/share/file/magic{,.mime} removal



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Hi,

file or rather libmagic1 ships its magic files in /usr/share/file/,
namely this used to be:

/usr/share/file/magic
/usr/share/file/magic.mgc
/usr/share/file/magic.mime
/usr/share/file/magic.mime.mgc

where as *.mgc are the binary files which are used by file/libmagic, and
the others are the conlgomerated source files *for informational
purposes only*. The sources have never been used by file for anything,
and nobody shall do this either[0].

However, as of file version 4.24, the format of the sources has changed
in order to compile the mime files from the magics automatically[1].
This means, that if you are using the magic or magic.mime files
directly, your package will break anyway.

Additionally since file 4.24, those packages that need/want to introduce
new magics unknown to file (and for strange reasons are not considering
it to include in the debian file package or upstream), can now do it by
storing their magic snippeds in /usr/share/file/, and call file
- --compile to produce the binary magics file (more on that at a later
point).

In unstable (and testing, soon), this has been avoided by an extra step
of dumping a plain magic file in the old format and including the legacy
copy of magic.mime from file version 4.23[2]. As soon as lenny is
released, these will disappear and you're supposed to eventually convert
your packages.

Probably, I will also fill bug reports before lenny release to affected
packages.

Regards,
Daniel

[0] they *could* change format suddenly, only the library and its
    bindings are safe.

[1] which is a big improvement and means, that the mime entries are
    no longer endlessly lacking behind to catch up with the magics.

[2] this won't be updated to 4.24 though, so really don't use it anymore
    if you want to have recent magics.

- --
Address:        Daniel Baumann, Burgunderstrasse 3, CH-4562 Biberist
Email:          daniel.baumann@panthera-systems.net
Internet:       http://people.panthera-systems.net/~daniel-baumann/
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