python - How to get mimetypes from file, read metadata

Question

Why do some files not have mimetypes?

guess_type returns a tuple with information about the file type like 'image/jpeg', 'application/xml', 'text/plain' , ....

Why do other files return no information 'None' even though the file exits and is not empty?

>> import mimetypes
>> mimetypes.guess_type('myfile.xx')

Answer 1

(Answered here: How to find the mime type of a file in python?)

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The how

Do this:

>>> pip install python-magic
>>> import magic
>>> mime = magic.Magic(mime=True)
>>> mime.from_file("testdata/test.pdf")

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The why

The "mimetypes" library isn't very good, (it's unreliable). The "none" is that the specified file isn't recognized as a known filetype, (an extension don't a fileype make).

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Hope this solves your issue and answers your question