libmagic

library1.0pypypiunverified

libmagic provides Python bindings to the `libmagic` C library, which identifies file types by checking their 'magic numbers' and other patterns. It's a thin wrapper around the venerable `file` command-line utility. The current version is 1.0, and it generally follows a stable, low-cadence release cycle focusing on maintenance and compatibility with the underlying C library.

serialization

pip install libmagic

package ↗homepage ↗

INSTALL

IMPORT

SIG · LIBMAGIC

libmagic

serializationpythonv1.0

Install

2.5s avg

Import

—

Disk

17MB

Pass rate

10/ 10

Env Coverage10 / 10

glibc

3.9–3.13

musl

3.9–3.13

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

tested against v1.0 · pip install

no network on importno background threads

Install × environment matrix

Each cell = how many times install + import succeeded across repeated harness runs. Partial = flaky.
glibc = Debian/Ubuntu slim · musl = Alpine Linux

musl

py 3.10–3.910 runs

installs and imports cleanly · install 0.0s · import 0.000s · 19.2MB

glibc

py 3.10–3.910 runs

installs and imports cleanly · install 2.5s · import 0.000s · 20MB

17MB installed

● package 17MB

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

Magic

✓ import pymagic

✗ from pymagic import Magic

This quickstart demonstrates how to use `libmagic` to identify file types from both actual files and byte buffers. It also shows how to retrieve the MIME type. A crucial first step not shown here is installing the underlying C `libmagic` library.

import os from magic import Magic # Create a dummy file for demonstration dummy_file_path = "test_file_for_libmagic.txt" with open(dummy_file_path, "w") as f: f.write("This is a plain text file content.") try: # Initialize Magic - often detects libmagic automatically # If not, you might need to specify the path to your magic.mgc file: # m = Magic(magic_file='/usr/share/misc/magic.mgc') m = Magic() # Get file type description from a file file_description = m.from_file(dummy_file_path) print(f"File '{dummy_file_path}' description: {file_description}") # Get file type from a byte buffer buffer_data = b"\x89PNG\r\n\x1a\n\x00\x00\x00\rIHDR..." buffer_description = m.from_buffer(buffer_data) print(f"Buffer data description: {buffer_description}") # Get MIME type explicitly m_mime = Magic(mime=True) mime_type = m_mime.from_file(dummy_file_path) print(f"File '{dummy_file_path}' MIME type: {mime_type}") finally: # Clean up the dummy file if os.path.exists(dummy_file_path): os.remove(dummy_file_path)

file --version

Debug

Known issues

gotchaThe `libmagic` Python package is a binding to the `libmagic` C library, which must be installed separately on your operating system.

fix

Before `pip install libmagic`, ensure the C library is present. For Debian/Ubuntu: `sudo apt-get install libmagic1`. For macOS (Homebrew): `brew install libmagic`. For Fedora/RHEL: `sudo dnf install file-libs`.

affects: 1.x

gotchaUsing `Magic().from_file()` on a directory path will result in an `IsADirectoryError`.

fix

Always verify that the path provided to `from_file()` points to an actual file, for example, by using `os.path.isfile(path)`.

affects: 1.x

gotchaIf the `libmagic` C library is installed in a non-standard location (e.g., custom Homebrew prefix or system without standard paths), the Python bindings might fail to find it.

fix

You may need to set the `MAGIC_FILE` environment variable to the full path of `magic.mgc` (the database file) or `LIBMAGIC_PATH` to the shared library (`libmagic.so`, `libmagic.dylib`, `libmagic.dll`) before running your Python script.

affects: 1.x

gotchaWhen dealing with filenames or file content that might contain non-ASCII characters, ensure your system's locale settings and Python's string handling are consistent to avoid encoding issues.

fix

While `libmagic` itself handles various encodings, the Python bindings typically return Unicode strings. If parsing output, be aware of character sets. For MIME types, specify `mime=True` in the `Magic` constructor.

affects: 1.x

Upgrade

Version history

1.0latest on PyPI · released Mar 2, 2012

Audit

Dependencies

No dependency data recorded yet.

Agent activity

4 hits · last 30 days

node

Resources

packagehttps://pypi.org/project/libmagic/ ↗

homepagehttp://bitbucket.org/xmonader/pymagic-dev ↗