Description

This article is from the Apple II Csa2 FAQ, by Jeff Hurlburt with numerous contributions by others.

10.016 How do I tell what kind of file this is?

    Here is a simple guide to help you identify a file. You should always go by
filename extension first, but not everybody uses those. In Unix, you can use
the 'head' command to look at the first couple of lines of a file. If it turns
out to be a binary file, you may be in for a surprise. You may want to use the
Unix 'file' command to find out if it is a text file or not first. Once you
have identified the file, check the earlier info on filename extensions for how
to deal with it.

If there are lines in the file that look like this (there can be other text
before it--search for 'FiLeStArT'):

FiLeStArTfIlEsTaRt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789()
GBINSCII        AQhmAAAAA8)4MIAI02DA9ARMQEDtAQhmAIVZ
gYITA6u7xADA0MjM3YTNBlDOENkQwYURzITM2UDN5gzNDJUQGVERyEDM1QzM4cjN
CFUOFR0QxAjR0MjM3YTNBlDOENkQwAQRzITM2UDN5gzNDJUQGVERyEDM1QzM4cjN
...

then you've got something encoded by BinSCII. You must decode all the parts
using BinSCII. Then, if the resulting file is in some compressed form, you
would use an appropriate utility to uncompress it. (For example, you would use
8-bit ShrinkIt to uncompress a whole-disk .sdk archive file.)

On the other hand, if you have a binary file which resembles:

NuFilei][![/NuFX_<:c[[[ H`F-fGSCII~[
cRJ0)fNN^P)3'A2p6SF6XGPd<9#'LC^08N7n\NB7Dd!eMN&eYX0Am=fXp
dsPAsp7rh`I'NS0ALAfi2)2ysGEQ$k9CP%L9
...

then you have a NuFX file (note the key words NuFile and NuFX).  You should be
able to extract the files it contains using ShrinkIt.

On the third hand, if you have a text file which resembles:

begin 666 nonsense.bny
M4W5N3U,s4F5L96%S92 T+C$s\%-$4U0V,"Ds(SsZ(%1U92!/8W0s.2 Q,CHS
M...3HT.2!%1%0s,3DY, HT

then you have a uuencoded file.

On another hand, if you have a text file which begins with

(This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)
:$&4)48C28N0&,P009!"6593K8dP8)3%!!!Ls!!!!!!Qie009%!!3!!SPKb6'&
e!3!!!!!!!!!!!P8D'8J4QpbBf9P)IN33)(4$N"d4K!JG%S!!!!!`!'VfJ!"VP

then you have a BinHex file. The GScii NDA by Derek Taubert decodes BinHex
files on an Apple IIGS. You can also use a variety of macintosh programs to do
the decoding. There is also a Unix implementation of BinHex called mcvert.

On one more hand, if you have a text file which resembles:

CALL-151
E00:38 A5 FF D0 32 D8 20 8E FD AD 30 BF 8D 6A 0E 20
E10:00 BF C7 6D 0E 0D 80 02 D0 1D 20 00 BF C5 69 0E

and more lines like that, followed by a bunch of lines that look like:

A90885A420732090242039FB2058FCA200BD9220F00620EDFDE8D0F5200CFDA9
008DF2038DF3038DF4036CFCFFE6A4A5A4C96F90CFA9008DFCBFA9018DFDBFA0
A90885A420732090242039FB2058FCA200BD9220F00620EDFDE8D0F5200CFDA9

then you have an Executioner file.

___________________________

By:  Rubywand
    

Continue to:

• prev: 10.015 What do the different popular file name extensions, like ".BSC", mean; and, how do I access the files?
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