'file -i' gives long description, not mime string

[Christian Convey]

The command "file -i <filename>" is supposed to list the mime type of a file, rather than a longer, human-readable version of the file's type.

When I run this command, however: "file -i test.pdf", I get this output:
test.pdf: PDF document, version 1.3

It should have been something *like*, "test.pdf: application/pdf" (I'm not sure exactly what the proper mime-type string is for PDFs.)

I'm using pre-released Feisty Fawn (up-to-date as of 9 April 2007). I'll attach test.pdf in a moment.

[Scott Kitterman (kitterman)]

I am unable to confirm this here. The output I got from your test file is:

test.pdf: application/pdf

Does the problem happen for you with other file types or just PDF?

[Christian Convey (christian-convey)]

You can close the bug.

I figured out the problem, and it's not Ubuntu's fault.

I had created a symlink: /etc/magic.mime as a symlink pointing at
/usr/share/file/magic. This was to make a module in PHP's PECL
library work, and was recommended by a posting in some newsgroup.
Making the symlink did solve that PHP problem, but apparently borked
the 'file' program in some way.

Removing the symlink caused 'file -i' to work correctly.