http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=974893


in reply to Re^2: find junk file
in thread find junk file

Oh, well, in that case, it's quite simple: 

use constant HIGHEST_CHAR_ON_KBD => 126, #These values may differ for 
+you, depending on where you bought
             LOWEST_CHAR_ON_KBD => 9;   #  your keyboard. There are so
+me extra, non-keyboard chars in this range, as well.
while( <FILE> ) {
    foreach( split("", $_) ) {
        if( ( ord($_) > HIGHEST_CHAR_ON_KBD ) || ( ord($_) < LOWEST_CH
+AR_ON_KBD) ) {
            say "It's a binary file";
            last;
        }
    }
}

[download]

It isn't the best way of doing things, but it's a start.
Update: I completely forgot about spaces, tabs, carriage returns, and line feeds.

~Thomas~
confess( "I offer no guarantees on my code." );

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^4: find junk file
by roboticus (Chancellor) on Jun 07, 2012 at 11:08 UTC

    thomas895:

    So a file is a text file unless someone uses a space?

        ...or a tab?

        ...or a carriage return?

        ...or a newline, escape sequence, ....?

    ...roboticus

    When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

[reply]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom