Question

file command identifies the file type by examining the magic number of the file.

(a) True

(b) False

The question was asked in examination.

This intriguing question originated from Counting File Data: wc Command in section Handling Ordinary Files of Unix

Answer 1

Right option is (a) True

The explanation: Magic number is the number which is embedded in the first few bytes of a file. Every file has a unique magic number which helps in identifying the file type.