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IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0000437fileGeneralpublic2023-05-22 05:38
Reporterlaz Assigned Tochristos  
PrioritynormalSeverityminorReproducibilityalways
Status assignedResolutionopen 
Product Version5.44 
Summary0000437: Match strength not accounted in custom magic definition
DescriptionOne can enrich the default magic database (in my case, "/usr/share/misc/magic.mgc") by adding a custom .mgc file in their home directory. Matches from this custom file however will always take precedence over the default definitions, regardless of the `strength` across all matches.

Steps To Reproduce# custom_magic
0 search/1024 ABC ABC file
!:mime application/abc
!:strength - 10

# default_magic
0 search/1024 ABCD ABCD file
!:mime application/abcd
!:strength + 50

# file -C -m default_magic && cp default_magic.mgc /usr/local/share/misc/magic.mgc
# file -C -m custom_magic && cp custom_magic.mgc ~/.magic.mgc

# file --list -m /usr/local/share/misc/magic.mgc
Set 0:
Binary patterns:
Text patterns:
Strength = 88@1: ABCD file [application/abcd]
Set 1:
Binary patterns:
Text patterns:

# file --list -m ~/.magic.mgc
Set 0:
Binary patterns:
Text patterns:
Strength = 29@1: ABC file [application/abc]
Set 1:
Binary patterns:
Text patterns:

# echo "ABCD" > abcd.txt && file abcd.txt -k
abcd.txt: ABC file\012- ABCD file, ASCII text

The order of the returned MIME types should have been reversed - `ABCD file\012- ABC file`
Tagsmagic

Activities

christos

2023-05-21 17:28

manager   ~0003939

The magic strengths of patterns are implemented by sorting magic entries within a set (a file) and then matching them in sequence. This is why you see that effect once you split the magic entries across multiple files. Fixing this would be very expensive at runtime (would require merging the entries for multiple files and then re-sorting. Not impossible, but is it really worth it?

laz

2023-05-22 05:38

reporter   ~0003941

Hey christos

I'm not aware of the implementation of the magic entries sorting, so feel free to close this one if you think it's going to be more of a headache than actually beneficial.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2023-03-28 08:49 laz New Issue
2023-03-28 08:49 laz Tag Attached: magic
2023-05-21 17:26 christos Assigned To => christos
2023-05-21 17:26 christos Status new => assigned
2023-05-21 17:28 christos Status assigned => feedback
2023-05-21 17:28 christos Note Added: 0003939
2023-05-22 05:38 laz Note Added: 0003941
2023-05-22 05:38 laz Status feedback => assigned