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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(1F)							   FMLI Commands							  test(1F)

NAME
test - condition evaluation command SYNOPSIS
test expression expression DESCRIPTION
test evaluates the expression expression and if its value is true, sets a 0 (TRUE) exit status; otherwise, a non-zero (FALSE) exit status is set; test also sets a non-zero exit status if there are no arguments. When permissions are tested, the effective user ID of the process is used. All operators, flags, and brackets (brackets used as shown in the second SYNOPSIS line) must be separate arguments to test. Normally these items are separated by spaces. USAGE
Primitives The following primitives are used to construct expression: -r filename True if filename exists and is readable. -w filename True if filename exists and is writable. -x filename True if filename exists and is executable. -f filename True if filename exists and is a regular file. -d filename True if filename exists and is a directory. -c filename True if filename exists and is a character special file. -b filename True if filename exists and is a block special file. -p filename True if filename exists and is a named pipe (FIFO). -u filename True if filename exists and its set-user-ID bit is set. -g filename True if filename exists and its set-group-ID bit is set. -k filename True if filename exists and its sticky bit is set. -s filename True if filename exists and has a size greater than 0. -t[fildes] True if the open file whose file descriptor number is fildes (1 by default) is associated with a terminal device. -z s1 True if the length of string s1 is 0. -n s1 True if the length of the string s1 is non-zero. s1 = s2 True if strings s1 and s2 are identical. s1 != s2 True if strings s1 and s2 are not identical. s1 True if s1 is not the null string. n1 -eq n2 True if the integers n1 and n2 are algebraically equal. Any of the comparisons -ne, -gt, -ge, -lt, and -le may be used in place of -eq. Operators These primaries may be combined with the following operators: ! Unary negation operator. -a Binary and operator. -o Binary or operator (-a has higher precedence than -o). `(expression)` Parentheses for grouping. Notice also that parentheses are meaningful to the shell and, therefore, must be quoted. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
find(1), sh(1), attributes(5) NOTES
If you test a file you own (the -r , -w , or -x tests), but the permission tested does not have the owner bit set, a non-zero (false) exit status will be returned even though the file may have the group or other bit set for that permission. The correct exit status will be set if you are super-user. The = and != operators have a higher precedence than the -r through -n operators, and = and != always expect arguments; therefore, = and != cannot be used with the -r through -n operators. If more than one argument follows the -r through -n operators, only the first argument is examined; the others are ignored, unless a -a or a -o is the second argument. SunOS 5.11 5 Jul 1990 test(1F)
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