emacs interface for the unix file(1) command

emacs interface for the unix file(1) command

[Roland Winkler]

Is there an emacs interface for the unix file(1) command?

What I have in mind is that I am using dired mode to clean my
tmp and scratch directories. Often there are files with some strange
names like XFdg34D678 that contain, maybe postscript files, maybe
pdf or dvi files or whatever. Before deleting these files I'd like
to view them either with an appropriate viewer or I'd like to visit
them in an emacs buffer that uses the appropriate mode even though
auto-mode-alist might be of little help. That's why I thought about
an emacs interface for the file(1) command.

Thanks a lot,

Roland

Re: emacs interface for the unix file(1) command

[Matthias Meulien]

Roland Winkler <Roland.Winkler@physik.uni-erlangen.de> wrote:

> Is there an emacs interface for the unix file(1) command?

Look at the `dired-show-file-type' command; it's binded to the `y' key
in dired mode. Note that you'll have to load the dired-aux library.
-- 
Matthias

Re: emacs interface for the unix file(1) command

[Roland Winkler]

Matthias Meulien <cimosque@free.fr> writes:

> Roland Winkler <Roland.Winkler@physik.uni-erlangen.de> wrote:
> 
> > Is there an emacs interface for the unix file(1) command?
> 
> Look at the `dired-show-file-type' command; it's binded to the `y' key
> in dired mode. Note that you'll have to load the dired-aux library.

Is there also something that allows me to "do the right thing"
according to the output of file?

Roland

Re: emacs interface for the unix file(1) command

[Matthias Meulien]

Roland Winkler <Roland.Winkler@physik.uni-erlangen.de> wrote:

> Is there also something that allows me to "do the right thing"
> according to the output of file?

Use `dired-do-shell-command' which is binded to the `!' key. For
example,

 ! file ? | grep PostScript - && gv ? RET

will open the current file with GhostView if and only if it is a
PostScript file; It works with list of files when using the process
mark.

Here `dired-aux' needs to be loaded.
-- 
Matthias