in reply to Distinguishing text from binary data
Is there a CPAN module for this kind of thing?
There are numerous. Some of them even work on scalars, not only filehandles. Have a look at File::MimeInfo::Magic and File::LibMagic for a start.
For most similar tasks, yet not for your actual one you may find File::MMagic most useful.
Cheers, Sören
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