static_magic
Yet another set of Python bindings for libmagic, the library behind the file command.
There's like 8 of these on PyPI, and even an official one shipped as part of file, so why another one?
Well basically none of them statically link and version libmagic. And I want to do that. static_magic compiles libmagic into the extension and ships the matching magic database inside the package, so you get the same answers everywhere, whatever libmagic your system has (or doesn't have).
Also I wanted to learn how C extensions work (not CFFI, not Cython, honest-to-god C extensions).
Install
pip install static_magic
We use the libmagic version as the first two parts of our version number. So if you install static_magic==5.45.* you are guaranteed to get libmagic 5.45. The third part is for changes to the bindings themselves.
Wheels are built for CPython 3.12+ (including free-threaded 3.14t) on:
- Linux x86_64 and aarch64 (glibc / manylinux)
- macOS arm64 (Apple Silicon), macOS 11+
Anywhere else, pip builds from the source distribution, which needs a C compiler and make.
Usage
import static_magic
static_magic.get_description_file("report.pdf") # 'PDF document, version 1.4, 2 page(s)'
static_magic.get_mime_type_file("report.pdf") # 'application/pdf'
with open("report.pdf", "rb") as f:
static_magic.get_mime_type_bytes(f.read(2048)) # 'application/pdf'
The module-level functions share a database that's loaded the first time you use one. If you'd rather manage that yourself, or want a custom database, make a Magic:
m = static_magic.Magic() # or Magic(database="/path/to/magic.mgc")
m.get_description_file("/bin/ls") # 'ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, x86-64, ...'
m.get_description_bytes(b"%PDF-1.4\n") # 'PDF document, version 1.4'
A Magic is safe to share between threads; calls on the same instance take turns.
Files that can't be read raise the usual OSError subclasses rather than returning libmagic's error text:
try:
static_magic.get_mime_type_file("missing.txt")
except FileNotFoundError as e:
print(e.filename) # 'missing.txt'
static_magic.libmagic_version() returns the bundled libmagic version as an int, e.g. 545.
Development
libmagic comes from the file repository, pinned as a git submodule:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/cstarkers/static_magic.git
cd static_magic
pip install -e .
python -m pytest tests
Building from git needs autotools (autoconf, automake, libtool) to generate libmagic's configure. Source distributions ship it pre-generated, so installing from PyPI doesn't. After changing the C code, run pip install -e . again.
Upgrading libmagic
The package version comes from the submodule, so moving to a new libmagic is:
- Check out the new release tag in the submodule, e.g.
git -C third_party/file checkout FILE5_46. - Reset
BINDING_REVISIONinsetup.pyto0. rm -rf build && pip install -e . && python -m pytest tests.test_libmagic_version_matches_package_versionchecks the compiled libmagic matches the new version.- Commit the submodule bump and tag
v5.46.0.
For a bindings-only release on the same libmagic, bump BINDING_REVISION instead.
License
BSD-2-Clause, see LICENSE. libmagic's own licence is in LICENSE-libmagic and is included in every wheel.
1 maintainer
Metadata
1 maintainer
Release files for static-magic 5.45.0
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