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dv3500ea
Asked: 2010-09-01 15:36:46 +0800 CST

How to get the mime type of a file from the command line?

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I'm trying to get the mime type of a file from the command line as a printed string (eg. application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet).

I looked up how to do this and found the xdg-mime command.

From reading the man page (man xdg-mime), it seems I should run xdg-mime query filetype FILE. However, when I run this with any file it prints nothing and exits.

Is there a way to fix this? An alternative command?

command-line files mime-type

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Use file --mime-type -b filename

    Look at file --help for more tips.

    • 133

  2. The great answer on this page can be put in a function or script like so:

    Example

    $ mime_type.sh /etc/passwd  
text/plain

    mime_type.sh

    function mime_type()
{
  file --mime-type -b $*
}

mime_type $*
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  3. xdg-mime and file query different databases (xdg-mime is more comprehensive). See Why the difference between the results with "file --mime-type" and "xdg-mime query filetype"? for more discussion.

    xdg-mime does not work correctly from a non-desktop session (e.g. if you're SSH'd into a machine).

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  4. mimetype /path/to/file

    Tested in 18.04

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