README
¶
magic
Pure Go content detection for files and bounded file prefixes. The package reports a physical format, MIME type, text encoding, and whether a prefix needs more bytes. It has no CGO, native runtime, filesystem, or third-party module dependency.
Install
go get github.com/git-pkgs/magic
Use
Detect treats its byte slice as the complete file:
result := magic.Detect(data)
switch result.Kind {
case magic.KindText:
fmt.Println(result.Format, result.MIME, result.Encoding)
case magic.KindBinary:
fmt.Println(result.Format, result.MIME)
case magic.KindUnknown:
fmt.Println(result.Reason)
}
Call DetectPrefix when the bytes came from a bounded read:
result := magic.DetectPrefix(prefix)
if result.Reason == magic.ReasonNeedMore {
// More bytes could change the result.
}
A complete binary signature can finish detection from a prefix. Text remains
provisional because later bytes can contain a NUL, an invalid encoding, or a
binary signature. NeedBytes is reserved for a known minimum total length and
is zero in the first release.
Both functions are safe for concurrent use. They retain no input and use no mutable package state.
Results
Kind is text, binary, or unknown. Format and MIME describe the
physical content. Encoding is set for accepted UTF-8, UTF-16LE, or UTF-16BE
text and never appears as a MIME charset parameter. Compare Format against
the exported Format* constants rather than string literals.
The format registry contains:
- ZIP, TAR, ar, gzip, bzip2, xz, zstd, PDF, CFBF, PNG, JPEG, and GIF
- ELF, Mach-O (thin and universal), PE/COFF, and WebAssembly
- plain text, HTML, XML, and SVG
Detection uses bytes only. ZIP-based package types such as JAR, wheel, and
NuGet remain zip, and compressed payloads are not opened. A CA FE BA BE
prefix is reported as Mach-O only when the following architecture count is
plausible, so Java class files fall through unclassified. PE requires the
PE\0\0 signature to be reachable within the first 512 bytes. A caller can
combine the result with filename or domain rules when it needs a semantic
type.
Text accepts valid UTF-8 and BOM-marked UTF-16. Tab, line feed, form feed,
carriage return, and escape are the permitted C0 controls. Other C0 controls
classify the input as binary. Invalid UTF-8 without a NUL is unknown with
ReasonInvalidText; callers that need Latin-1 can apply their own fallback.
HTML, XML, and SVG signatures supply format metadata before the shared text rules run. The metadata remains present if malformed or control-bearing input is classified as unknown or binary.
Performance
The detector performs no allocations for the supplied fixtures. On an Apple M1 Pro with Go 1.26.5, a 4 KiB text input takes about 1.5 microseconds, the mixed 4 KiB fixture corpus averages about 0.77 microseconds per call, and a 1 MiB text input takes about 0.35 milliseconds. Importing and calling the package adds 16,640 bytes to a stripped minimal binary.
Run the package benchmarks on the target machine:
go test -run '^$' -bench . -benchmem
The implementation scans at most 512 bytes for registered signatures. Text validation is linear in the supplied byte count and uses fixed auxiliary memory.
Provenance
The signature matcher is adapted from Go 1.26.5's
net/http.DetectContentType and the WHATWG MIME Sniffing Standard. The
registry is intentionally limited to the formats listed above. NOTICE
contains the source and license details.
License
MIT
Documentation
¶
Overview ¶
Package magic identifies the physical format and text encoding of file content.
Index ¶
Examples ¶
Constants ¶
const ( FormatText = "text" FormatHTML = "html" FormatXML = "xml" FormatSVG = "svg" FormatZIP = "zip" FormatTAR = "tar" FormatGZIP = "gzip" FormatBZIP2 = "bzip2" FormatXZ = "xz" FormatZstd = "zstd" FormatPDF = "pdf" FormatCFBF = "cfbf" FormatPNG = "png" FormatJPEG = "jpeg" FormatGIF = "gif" FormatELF = "elf" FormatMachO = "mach-o" FormatPE = "pe" FormatWASM = "wasm" FormatAR = "ar" )
Format values reported in Result.Format.
Variables ¶
This section is empty.
Functions ¶
This section is empty.
Types ¶
type Reason ¶
type Reason string
Reason explains why a classification is provisional or unknown.
const ( // ReasonNone means the classification is final for the supplied input. ReasonNone Reason = "" // ReasonNeedMore means more bytes could change a prefix classification. ReasonNeedMore Reason = "need-more" // ReasonInvalidText means the bytes are neither accepted text nor // recognised binary content. ReasonInvalidText Reason = "invalid-text" )
type Result ¶
type Result struct {
Kind Kind
MIME string
Format string
Encoding string
Reason Reason
NeedBytes int
}
Result describes the physical format and text properties of content.
MIME never includes a charset parameter. Encoding uses lowercase registered names. Empty fields mean that the corresponding property was not identified.
func Detect ¶
Detect classifies data as the complete content of a file.
Example ¶
package main
import (
"fmt"
"github.com/git-pkgs/magic"
)
func main() {
result := magic.Detect([]byte("package main\n"))
fmt.Println(result.Kind, result.Format, result.MIME, result.Encoding)
}
Output: text text text/plain utf-8
func DetectPrefix ¶
DetectPrefix classifies an intentionally bounded file prefix.
ReasonNeedMore reports that later bytes could change the answer. NeedBytes is reserved for a known minimum total length and is zero in this release.
Example ¶
package main
import (
"fmt"
"github.com/git-pkgs/magic"
)
func main() {
result := magic.DetectPrefix([]byte("hello"))
fmt.Println(result.Kind, result.Reason)
}
Output: text need-more
Source Files