From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: using libmagic in Emacs? Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:33:05 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87ocqco7fi.fsf@mail.jurta.org> <87y6pb8lqh.fsf@mail.jurta.org> <87my5qngab.fsf@mail.jurta.org> <87eiquuq7j.fsf@mail.jurta.org> <83vdk69evw.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1251689692 25057 80.91.229.12 (31 Aug 2009 03:34:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:34:52 +0000 (UTC) Cc: juri@jurta.org, joakim@verona.se, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Aug 31 05:34:45 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1MhxfI-0008OA-UL for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:34:45 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:49910 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MhxfI-00005b-2f for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:34:44 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Mhxdm-0007cN-Tu for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:33:11 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Mhxdi-0007ah-C2 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:33:10 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=49873 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Mhxdi-0007ab-5h for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:33:06 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([140.186.70.10]:52770) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Mhxdh-0000lr-TE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:33:06 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1Mhxdh-000698-Iw; Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:33:05 -0400 In-reply-to: <83vdk69evw.fsf@gnu.org> (message from Eli Zaretskii on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:09:23 +0300) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:114893 Archived-At: PLEASE do not base Emacs infrastructure on external programs, unless they come with Emacs. `file' is not available on every platform, and libmagic isn't either. even on those it is, the quality and extent of its database is unclear and so cannot be relied upon. On systems that have libmagic, isn't it the case that file uses libmagic? I really don't understand why linking against a simple free library is an issue, but if it is, we should find a different solution using some database internal to Emacs, as we did until now. It shouldn't be a big deal. Only a few specialized places should want to run `file' on a file.