[gst-devel] type finding

[Colin Walters]

[ I am on the list; please don't CC me ]

On Mon, 2003-02-03 at 06:49, Benjamin Otte wrote:

> I don't think it's a good idea to detect filetypes based on extensions,
> though it might be a nice idea to use it as a hint on which typefind to
> try first.

It is a quite efficient method.  Also note that typefinding by content
isn't perfect either; you could just happen to have a say flac file
where a section looks like an mp3 frame.

> Even Nautilus uses sniffing exclusively I believe.

Exclusively?  No way.  Think about for remote filesystems.  Opening up
every single file and looking at its content would be prohibitively
expensive.  Just imagine looking at a web directory with a few hundred
files; then you'd need to make a few hundred HTTP requests.

> If no type is found, spider fetches a new buffer, appends it to the old
> one and restarts typefinding with that bigger buffer.

Makes sense.