ascii or binary

[greg]

Hello,

I'm searching to know if a local file is ascii or binary.
I couldn't find it in the manual, is there a way to know that ?

thanks,

--
greg

[frizzle]

greg wrote:

Hello,

I'm searching to know if a local file is ascii or binary.
I couldn't find it in the manual, is there a way to know that ?

thanks,

--
greg

AFAIK it depends on what kind of file it is. Not sure, but ascii are
txt, csv, html etc, binary are images, mp3's etc.
Correct me if i'm wrong.

[ZeldorBlat]

greg wrote:

Hello,

I'm searching to know if a local file is ascii or binary.
I couldn't find it in the manual, is there a way to know that ?

thanks,

--
greg

<http://www.php.net/mb_detect_encoding>

[greg]

>

<http://www.php.net/mb_detect_encoding>

excuse my ignorance, but do you mean that if this function returns "ascii",
it's ascii ... if not it's binary ?
I'm not really sure to get your tip.

--
greg

[greg]

AFAIK it depends on what kind of file it is. Not sure, but ascii are
txt, csv, html etc, binary are images, mp3's etc.
Correct me if i'm wrong.

surely, but this means I must think of all the possible file extension
decide whether it's ascii or binary.
it seems to be limited, but thx anyway.

--
greg

[Bent Stigsen]

greg wrote:

AFAIK it depends on what kind of file it is. Not sure, but ascii are
txt, csv, html etc, binary are images, mp3's etc.
Correct me if i'm wrong.

surely, but this means I must think of all the possible file extension
decide whether it's ascii or binary.
it seems to be limited, but thx anyway.

In a sense he is right, it is not really straightforward to make the
distinction, if you strictly mean the ascii character set.

Binary just means that it consists of binary patterns or sequence of
bits, varied in length and meaning. The content of a binary file only
makes sense to an application which knows what the sequence of bits
means. When a file is viewed in a text-editor, then the data is
(possibly mistakenly) chopped up in 8-bits (or whatever), and the
corresponding symbol of that value is displayed, which may or may not
make any sense at all. Strictly speaking, the only difference between
ascii and non-ascii would be whether or not each chunk of bits is
*intended* to correspond to a specific symbol in the Ascii character
table.

If you by ascii generally mean plain readable/printable text, not
necessarilly limited to ascii, then there is tools that could help you.

http://dk2.php.net/mime_content_type
http://pecl.php.net/package/fileinfo

If you are on a linux/unix, check:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=file

You could just ignore the subtype, and only distinguish on mediatype
between text and everything else.

/Bent

[greg]

> In a sense he is right, it is not really straightforward to make the

distinction, if you strictly mean the ascii character set.

Binary just means that it consists of binary patterns or sequence of bits,
varied in length and meaning. The content of a binary file only makes
sense to an application which knows what the sequence of bits means. When
a file is viewed in a text-editor, then the data is (possibly mistakenly)
chopped up in 8-bits (or whatever), and the corresponding symbol of that
value is displayed, which may or may not make any sense at all. Strictly
speaking, the only difference between ascii and non-ascii would be whether
or not each chunk of bits is *intended* to correspond to a specific symbol
in the Ascii character table.

If you by ascii generally mean plain readable/printable text, not
necessarilly limited to ascii, then there is tools that could help you.

http://dk2.php.net/mime_content_type
http://pecl.php.net/package/fileinfo

If you are on a linux/unix, check:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=file

You could just ignore the subtype, and only distinguish on mediatype
between text and everything else.

/Bent

Thank you for these explanations.
In fact, I should have told why I want know make the difference between
ascii and binary files.
I have a list of files to send via FTP from a local machien to a remote
server.
the ftp_put function needs an argument that can be FTP_ASCII or FTP_BINARY.
I don't know how to choose dynamicaly this argument as the must upload
various file types.

tia,

--
greg

[Kimmo Laine]

"greg" <gr**@no-spam.org> wrote in message
news:44**********************@news.free.fr...

In a sense he is right, it is not really straightforward to make the
distinction, if you strictly mean the ascii character set.

Binary just means that it consists of binary patterns or sequence of
bits, varied in length and meaning. The content of a binary file only
makes sense to an application which knows what the sequence of bits
means. When a file is viewed in a text-editor, then the data is (possibly
mistakenly) chopped up in 8-bits (or whatever), and the corresponding
symbol of that value is displayed, which may or may not make any sense at
all. Strictly speaking, the only difference between ascii and non-ascii
would be whether or not each chunk of bits is *intended* to correspond to
a specific symbol in the Ascii character table.

If you by ascii generally mean plain readable/printable text, not
necessarilly limited to ascii, then there is tools that could help you.

http://dk2.php.net/mime_content_type
http://pecl.php.net/package/fileinfo

If you are on a linux/unix, check:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=file

You could just ignore the subtype, and only distinguish on mediatype
between text and everything else.

/Bent

Thank you for these explanations.
In fact, I should have told why I want know make the difference between
ascii and binary files.
I have a list of files to send via FTP from a local machien to a remote
server.
the ftp_put function needs an argument that can be FTP_ASCII or
FTP_BINARY.
I don't know how to choose dynamicaly this argument as the must upload
various file types.

I suppose you could just send binary always.

--
"En ole paha ihminen, mutta omenat ovat elinkeinoni." -Perttu Sirviö
sp**@outolempi.net | Gedoon-S @ IRCnet | rot13(xv***@bhgbyrzcv.arg)

[Bent Stigsen]

greg wrote:
[snip]

Thank you for these explanations.
In fact, I should have told why I want know make the difference between
ascii and binary files.
I have a list of files to send via FTP from a local machien to a remote
server.
the ftp_put function needs an argument that can be FTP_ASCII or FTP_BINARY.
I don't know how to choose dynamicaly this argument as the must upload
various file types.

The only purpose of ascii transfer is to translate line-endings
(CR,LF,CRLF) between differing systems, but many text-editors can
handle any type, so always using binary as Kimmo suggest is a good
option, since this leaves files intact, whereas using ascii by mistake
could render a file useless.

Although I would think that to use ascii-transfer if and only if file
has an extension of ".txt" should be safe.

/Bent

[Jerry Stuckle]

Kimmo Laine wrote:

"greg" <gr**@no-spam.org> wrote in message
news:44**********************@news.free.fr...

In a sense he is right, it is not really straightforward to make the
distinction, if you strictly mean the ascii character set.

Binary just means that it consists of binary patterns or sequence of
bits, varied in length and meaning. The content of a binary file only
makes sense to an application which knows what the sequence of bits
means. When a file is viewed in a text-editor, then the data is (possibly
mistakenly) chopped up in 8-bits (or whatever), and the corresponding
symbol of that value is displayed, which may or may not make any sense at
all. Strictly speaking, the only difference between ascii and non-ascii
would be whether or not each chunk of bits is *intended* to correspond to
a specific symbol in the Ascii character table.

If you by ascii generally mean plain readable/printable text, not
necessarilly limited to ascii, then there is tools that could help you.

http://dk2.php.net/mime_content_type
http://pecl.php.net/package/fileinfo

If you are on a linux/unix, check:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=file

You could just ignore the subtype, and only distinguish on mediatype
between text and everything else.

/Bent

Thank you for these explanations.
In fact, I should have told why I want know make the difference between
ascii and binary files.
I have a list of files to send via FTP from a local machien to a remote
server.
the ftp_put function needs an argument that can be FTP_ASCII or
FTP_BINARY.
I don't know how to choose dynamicaly this argument as the must upload
various file types.

I suppose you could just send binary always.

No, that will screw up the file if you're going between different OS's
such as Windows and Unix. There's a reason why there are different
transfer modes!

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[Jerry Stuckle]

Bent Stigsen wrote:

greg wrote:
[snip]

Thank you for these explanations.
In fact, I should have told why I want know make the difference
between ascii and binary files.
I have a list of files to send via FTP from a local machien to a
remote server.
the ftp_put function needs an argument that can be FTP_ASCII or
FTP_BINARY.
I don't know how to choose dynamicaly this argument as the must upload
various file types.

The only purpose of ascii transfer is to translate line-endings
(CR,LF,CRLF) between differing systems, but many text-editors can handle
any type, so always using binary as Kimmo suggest is a good option,
since this leaves files intact, whereas using ascii by mistake could
render a file useless.

Although I would think that to use ascii-transfer if and only if file
has an extension of ".txt" should be safe.

/Bent

Transferring a text file from Windows to Unix will cause problems in VIM
and many other Unix editors. And not all Windows editors support
Unix-style nl characters.

Better to determine if it's a text file, and only if unknown default to
binary.

Alternatively, scan the file for non-char values.
--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[greg]

>

Transferring a text file from Windows to Unix will cause problems in VIM
and many other Unix editors. And not all Windows editors support
Unix-style nl characters.

Better to determine if it's a text file, and only if unknown default to
binary.

Alternatively, scan the file for non-char values.

Ok, I'm gonna use this solution.
Thank you all for your help.

--
greg

[Bent Stigsen]

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

Bent Stigsen wrote: [snip]

The only purpose of ascii transfer is to translate line-endings
(CR,LF,CRLF) between differing systems, but many text-editors can
handle any type, so always using binary as Kimmo suggest is a good
option, since this leaves files intact, whereas using ascii by mistake
could render a file useless.

Although I would think that to use ascii-transfer if and only if file
has an extension of ".txt" should be safe.

/Bent

Transferring a text file from Windows to Unix will cause problems in VIM
and many other Unix editors. And not all Windows editors support
Unix-style nl characters.

Those bastards. Well, they just have to change. Other transfer
protocols or portable storage devices makes it impossible to control
anyway, so (using a bad analogy) insisting on proper conversion when
using ftp is like waving a hand to stop a hurricane.

If the destination is a web-folder or accessed in an alternative way
by different clients, it doesn't matter in the slightest, or in worst
case even a bad idea.
Better to determine if it's a text file, and only if unknown default to
binary.

I understand that it was designed that way, so that things was neat
and tidy in both camps, but the battle of the line-endings is already
lost to chaos, nothing short of a revolution is going to change that.

/Bent

[snip]

[Erwin Moller]

ZeldorBlat wrote:

greg wrote:

Hello,

I'm searching to know if a local file is ascii or binary.
I couldn't find it in the manual, is there a way to know that ?

thanks,

--
greg

<http://www.php.net/mb_detect_encoding>

Hi,

You made me curious. :-)

How can that function diffentiate between encodings?
How is that done?

I mean: The string contains a set of numbers behind the scene that have a
certain corresponding character depending on the characterset used.

Now it looks the other way around: It's like the string also contains
information on what encoding is used for it.
It that true?

I must be missing something completely.

Can anybody explain how this function works?

TIA

Regards,
Erwin Moller