Re: SSD TBW

On 8/22/2026 8:51 PM, Rich wrote:
> In comp.misc Don Y <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Sadly, UNIX assumes file type is completely indicated by
>> a suffix on a filename -- said suffix being under the control
>> of the person who selected the filename.
> 
> Nope.  You are mixing up ms windows (where the file extension is
> believed to always be right and descriptive of the contents) with Unix
> (which actually looks at the files contents and pays no attention to
> any part of the name).

One configures applications (CVS in this case) to use the extension
of the file as an indication of how it should be treated.

The contents still don't tell you what the file is or how it is intended
to be used.  Because no OS can infer the purpose of a "stream of bytes"
without having been previously informed of that.

When a file (or, the metadata for the file) claims it is a
"FIGGLEBOB", then the OS can throw up its hands and claim
not to know how to handle it -- even if it looks like a shell
script, text file, TIFF, etc.  Because the explicit type declaration
has told it that it is none of those things, despite the resemblance.

Is a .AI file a "text" file -- because the contents APPEAR to be
text -- even though they aren't really?  Is myprogram.q source
code in C, just because peeking inside LOOKS like that's the case?