isbinary
Lightweight pure Python package to check if a file is binary or text.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need reliable binary/text detection and can accept that the package is unmaintained. It has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and solves a genuine problem with a proven heuristic. However, do not install if you require ongoing maintenance, support for edge cases discovered after May 2022, or compatibility with Python versions beyond 3.10—the last commit was over three years ago.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.8 or later (supports 3.8, 3.9, 3.10); chardet must be installed as a runtime dependency.
- Installation is straightforward with low friction.
- However, the package is abandoned—last release was 2022-05-22 with no updates since, though the repository remains public and the code is stable enough for basic use.
License · maintenance · safety
BSD (permissive) — Licensed under BSD (permissive), so you can use, modify, and distribute it freely with minimal restrictions, though the license treatment is listed as 'Other/Proprietary' in classifiers despite the BSD declaration.
last release 2022-05-22 (1545 days) · last repo commit 2022-05-22 · 3 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 76,900 downloads/mo, #14,582 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install isbinary
from isbinary.helpers import is_binary_file
if is_binary_file('path/to/file'):
print('Binary file')
else:
print('Text file')- Whether the heuristic handles all modern file types and encodings reliably, or if edge cases remain unresolved as the description suggests.
- Performance characteristics when analyzing large files or many files in batch.
- Compatibility with Python versions beyond 3.10, given the package is abandoned and no longer maintained.
What it is and what it does
isbinary is a lightweight pure-Python library that guesses whether a file is binary or text by examining its content using a heuristic based on Perl's pp_fttext algorithm. It uses chardet for encoding detection and has been tested against common file types (.txt, .json, .png, .jpg, etc.) and multiple encodings. The package was forked from the abandoned binaryornot project in May 2022 to add type annotations, modernize CI tooling, and drop Python 2 support.
The library solves a deceptively complex problem: naive approaches like checking for null bytes or trying to decode as UTF-8 fail on real-world files. isbinary encapsulates a battle-tested heuristic that handles edge cases across different platforms and file encodings, saving you from writing and thoroughly testing this logic yourself. However, the package itself is now abandoned—no updates since its initial release—so it will not receive bug fixes or support for newly discovered edge cases.
Use it for
- Filter files in a directory walk to process only text files, skipping binaries like images or compiled objects.
- Validate user-uploaded files in a web application to reject binary uploads when only text is expected.
- Preprocess data pipelines to separate text and binary files for different downstream handlers.
- Build development tools that need to distinguish text source files from binary artifacts in a repository.
- Implement file-type guards in backup or sync utilities to handle text and binary files differently.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need reliable binary/text detection and can accept that the package is unmaintained.
It has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and solves a genuine problem with a proven heuristic. However, do not install if you require ongoing maintenance, support for edge cases discovered after May 2022, or compatibility with Python versions beyond 3.10—the last commit was over three years ago.
Install
isbinary on PyPI
Before you install
Installation is straightforward with low friction. However, the package is abandoned—last release was 2022-05-22 with no updates since, though the repository remains public and the code is stable enough for basic use.
Requires Python 3.8 or later (supports 3.8, 3.9, 3.10); chardet must be installed as a runtime dependency.
License in practice
Licensed under BSD (permissive), so you can use, modify, and distribute it freely with minimal restrictions, though the license treatment is listed as 'Other/Proprietary' in classifiers despite the BSD declaration.
Quickstart
pip install isbinary
from isbinary.helpers import is_binary_file
if is_binary_file('path/to/file'):
print('Binary file')
else:
print('Text file')Verify before relying
- Whether the heuristic handles all modern file types and encodings reliably, or if edge cases remain unresolved as the description suggests.
- Performance characteristics when analyzing large files or many files in batch.
- Compatibility with Python versions beyond 3.10, given the package is abandoned and no longer maintained.
Package facts
| License | BSD permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.8,<4.0 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 1 packagechardet |
| Maintenance | Abandoned 1,545 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 76,900 / month, #14,582 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | License :: Other/Proprietary LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9 |
Evidence: isbinary-1.0.1-py3-none-any.whl
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See also binaryornot · cchardet · chardet · faust-cchardet · file-magic · types-chardet · mikeshardmind-base2048 · cigam · encutils