detect endianness of a binary with python

[Michael Torrie]

On 07/21/2010 08:02 AM, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2010-07-21, Holger brunck <holger.brunck at keymile.com> wrote:
> 
>> I use python 2.5 and I am looking for a possibility to determine a
>> file type. Especially the endianness of a file is needed for me. Is
>> there a way to detect this easily in python?
> 
> Only if you already know what's going to be in the file.
> 
>> Something like the "file" utility for linux would be very helpfull.
>>
>> Any help is appreciated.
> 
> You're going to have to describe in detail what's in the file before
> anybody can help.

There is a python module called "magic" that uses the same engine as
file to determine a file type.  It's part of the "find" source code:

http://www.darwinsys.com/file/

On Fedora I can just yum install python-magic to get it.