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> What's the value in throwing in "heuristics" and probabilistic inference into a process that is black and white by design. I use the file command all the tim
by TacticalCoder 3y ago
> What's the value in throwing in "heuristics" and probabilistic inference into a process that is black and white by design.
I use the file command all the time. The value is when you get this:
... $ file somefile.xyz
somefile.xyz: data
AIUI from reading TFA, magika can determine more filetypes than what the file command can detect.
It'd actually be very easy to determine if there's any value in magika: run file on every file on your filesystem and then for every file where the file command returns "data", run magika and see if magika is right.
If it's right, there's your value.
P.S: it may also be easier to run on Windows than the file command? But then I can't do much to help people who are on Windows.
- Eiim 3y agoFrom elsewhere in this thread, it appears that Magika detects far fewer file types than file (116 vs ~1600), which makes sense. For file, you just need to drop in a few rules to add a new, somewhat obscure type. An AI approach like Magika will need lots of training and test data for each new file type. Where Magika might have a leg up is with distinguishing different textual data files (i.e., source code), but I don't see that as a particularly big use case honestly.