Get File MIME Type from Command Line
I've gotten skilled at shell scripting over the years. I love a good GUI but knowing how to automate makes you a much more powerful engineer. Much of my scripting requires recursing over directories and processing a file if it meets a given criteria, which is often file extension or MIME type.
You can use the following shell command to get a file's MIME type:
file --mime-type -b Downloads/main.js
# text/plain
file --mime-type -b Downloads/logo.jpg
# image/jpeg
It's important to use the brief (-b) option in the command or you may receive an error message.
MIME type is used for validation and any number of other informational use cases. Luckily the file command and and a flag is all you need!
![CSS @supports]()
Feature detection via JavaScript is a client side best practice and for all the right reasons, but unfortunately that same functionality hasn't been available within CSS. What we end up doing is repeating the same properties multiple times with each browser prefix. Yuck. Another thing we...
![Conquering Impostor Syndrome]()
Two years ago I documented my struggles with Imposter Syndrome and the response was immense. I received messages of support and commiseration from new web developers, veteran engineers, and even persons of all experience levels in other professions. I've even caught myself reading the post...
![JavaScript Copy to Clipboard]()
"Copy to clipboard" functionality is something we all use dozens of times daily but the client side API around it has always been lacking; some older APIs and browser implementations required a scary "are you sure?"-style dialog before the content would be copied to clipboard -- not great for...
![Google Extension Effect with CSS or jQuery or MooTools JavaScript]()
Both of the two great browser vendors, Google and Mozilla, have Extensions pages that utilize simple but classy animation effects to enhance the page. One of the extensions used by Google is a basic margin-top animation to switch between two panes: a graphic pane...
