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# XXXVIII. Fileinfo Functions

# Introduction

The functions in this module try to guess the content type and encoding of a file by looking for certain magic byte sequences at specific positions within the file. While this is not a bullet proof approach the heuristics used do a very good job.

# Requirements

magic_open library is needed to build this extension.

# Installation

A short installation note: just type

    $ pear install fileinfo

in your console.

# Runtime Configuration

This extension has no configuration directives defined in `php.ini`.

# Resource Types

There is one resource used in Fileinfo extension: a magic database descriptor returned by finfo_open().

# Predefined Constants

The constants below are defined by this extension, and will only be available when the extension has either been compiled into PHP or dynamically loaded at runtime.

`FILEINFO_NONE` (integer)

  No special handling.

`FILEINFO_SYMLINK` (integer)

  Follow symlinks.

`FILEINFO_MIME` (integer)

  Return a mime string, instead of a textual description.

`FILEINFO_COMPRESS` (integer)

  Decompress compressed files.

`FILEINFO_DEVICES` (integer)

  Look at the contents of blocks or character special devices.

`FILEINFO_CONTINUE` (integer)

  Return all matches, not just the first.

`FILEINFO_PRESERVE_ATIME` (integer)

  If possible preserve the original access time.

`FILEINFO_RAW` (integer)

  Don't translate unprintable characters to a \ooo octal representation.

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