Wow, this is pretty cool.

Kevin, do you have examples of the output?

Does it work for bulk files?

I mean, I could just try this on my Ubuntu machine, but it's all the way downstairs...

-Ross.

On May 23, 2012, at 3:14 PM, Ford, Kevin wrote:

> I finally had occasion today (read: remembered) to see if the *nix "file" command would recognize a MARC record file.  I haven't tested extensively, but it did identify the file as MARC21 Bibliographic record.  It also correctly identified a MARC21 Authority Record.  I'm running the most recent version of Ubuntu (12.04 - precise pangolin).
> 
> I write because the inclusion of a "file" MARC21 specification rule in the magic.db stems from a Code4lib exchange that started in March 2011 [1] (it ends in April if you want to go crawling for the entire thread).
> 
> Rgds,
> 
> Kevin
> 
> [1] https://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1103&L=CODE4LIB&T=0&F=&S=&P=112728
> 
> --
> Kevin Ford
> Network Development and MARC Standards Office
> Library of Congress
> Washington, DC