---
id: python-magic
version: "0.4.27"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# python-magic — File type identification using libmagic

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install python-magic
uv add python-magic
poetry add python-magic

## Description

# python-magic
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python-magic is a Python interface to the libmagic file type
identification library.  libmagic identifies file types by checking
their headers according to a predefined list of file types. This
functionality is exposed to the command line by the Unix command
`file`.

## Usage

```python
>>> import magic
>>> magic.from_file("testdata/test.pdf")
'PDF document, version 1.2'
# recommend using at least the first 2048 bytes, as less can produce incorrect identification
>>> magic.from_buffer(open("testdata/test.pdf", "rb").read(2048))
'PDF document, version 1.2'
>>> 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...

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/python-magic) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/python-magic/)