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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers How to determine if a file is ASCII? Post 14639 by Jimbo on Monday 4th of February 2002 11:08:48 AM
Old 02-04-2002
That test for -f will not help with an ASCII test. It determines if a filename is a regular file as opposed to a directory, a link, etc, and will return true even for binaries.

But I would start with that test, and if it is a regular file, then the "file" command will give a clue as to its content.
Jimbo
 

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TEST(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   TEST(1)

NAME
test, [ - test for a condition SYNOPSIS
test expr [ expr ] OPTIONS
(none) EXAMPLES
test -r file # See if file is readable DESCRIPTION
Test checks to see if files exist, are readable, etc. and returns an exit status of zero if true and nonzero if false. The legal operators are -r file true if the file is readable -w file true if the file is writable -x file true if the file is executable -f file true if the file is not a directory -d file true if the file is a directory -s file true if the file exists and has a size > 0 -t fd true if file descriptor fd (default 1) is a terminal -z s true if the string s has zero length -n s true if the string s has nonzero length s1 = s2 true if the strings s1 and s2 are identical s1 != s2 true if the strings s1 and s2 are different m -eq m true if the integers m and n are numerically equal The operators -gt, -ge, -ne, -le, and -lt may be used as well. These operands may be combined with -a (Boolean and), -o (Boolean or), ! (negation). The priority of -a is higher than that of -o. Parentheses are permitted, but must be escaped to keep the shell from trying to interpret them. SEE ALSO
expr(1), sh(1). TEST(1)
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