file is described as 'Standard Unix program for recognizing the type of data contained in a computer file using magic numbers' and is an app. There are eight alternatives to file for Windows, Linux, Web-based and Mac. The best file alternative is TrID. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try TrID or TrIDNet. Other great apps like file are Toolsley File Identifier, FileCHK, HexBrowser and DROID.
Allows to detect file type by recognition of binary signatures. Database with signatures can be downloaded from author site or trained by user with program named TrIDScan(see at author site).
TrID is the most popular Web-based, Windows & Linux alternative to file.
TrID is the most popular free alternative to file.
TRIDNet is the GUI version of TrID, probably more practical to use than the CLI version, especially for those not very familiar with the command line prompt.
xdg-utils is a set of tools that allows applications to easily integrate with the desktop environment of the user, regardless of the specific desktop environment that the user runs.
xdg-utils is the most popular Open Source alternative to file.
Identify files based on the libmagic database in your browser. HTML5/JS port of the "file" tool. No downloads, no installation and no uploads!.
HexBrowser is a tool that identifies file types. It does not care about the file extension, but opens each file to look for signatures so it can determine the exact type of a file. It now recognizes more than 800 different file formats.
DROID (Digital Record and Object Identification) is a software tool developed by The National Archives to perform automated batch identification of file formats. Developed by its Digital Preservation Department as part of its broader digital preservation activities, DROID is...
DROID is the most popular Mac alternative to file.
JHOVE is a file format identification, validation and characterisation tool. It is implemented as a Java application and is usable on any Unix, Windows, or OS X platform with appropriate Java installation.
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