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authorAdam Hupp <adam@hupp.org>2013-06-03 02:26:33 -0700
committerAdam Hupp <adam@hupp.org>2013-06-03 02:29:50 -0700
commitf6a165e34be4ffdb8f86044c1ee710674dcd87fb (patch)
tree8dc0bd2e90d9d88b0e2dc5aeecfdd3a4b64a609d
parent238643e1469c30e636af632f6f2af7d25c509620 (diff)
downloadpython-magic-f6a165e34be4ffdb8f86044c1ee710674dcd87fb.tar.gz
add troubleshooting section and extended usage docs
-rw-r--r--README.md26
1 files changed, 25 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index abfc474..e1ab87d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ their headers according to a predefined list of file types. This
functionality is exposed to the command line by the Unix command
`file`.
-## Example Usage
+## Usage
>>> import magic
>>> magic.from_file("testdata/test.pdf")
@@ -16,6 +16,12 @@ functionality is exposed to the command line by the Unix command
>>> magic.from_file("testdata/test.pdf", mime=True)
'application/pdf'
+There is also a `Magic` class that provides more direct control,
+including overriding the magic database file and turning on character
+encoding dectection. This is not recommended for general use. In
+particular, it its not safe for sharing across multiple threads and
+will fail throw if this is attempted.
+
## Installation
The current stable version of python-magic is available on pypi and
@@ -35,6 +41,24 @@ On Windows, you need to download and save the following libraries under
- `zlib1.dll` from [sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/zlib/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/zlib/)
- `magic1.dll` from [sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/file/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/file/)
+On OSX:
+
+- When using Homebrew: `brew install file-formula`
+- When using macports: `port install file`
+
+### Troubleshooting
+
+- 'MagicException: could not find any magic files!': some
+ installations of libmagic do not correctly point to their magic
+ database file. Try specifying the path to the file explictly in the
+ constructor: `magic.Magic(magic_file="path_to_magic_file")`.
+
+- 'WindowsError: [Error 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application':
+ Attempting to run the 32-bit libmagic DLL in a 64-bit build of
+ python will fail with this error. I'm not aware of any publically
+ available 64-bit builds of libmagic. You'll either need to build
+ them yourself (pleae share docs!), or switch to a 32-bit Python.
+
## Author
Written by Adam Hupp in 2001 for a project that never got off the