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Created attachment 531134 [details]
proposed patch

    Technical note added. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field
    accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team.
    
    New Contents:
Cause: File magic patterns for Python were insufficient.

Consequence: File was not able to detect Python script according to the Python function definition.

Fix: New magic pattern has been added to detect Python script according to the Python function definition.

Result: Python detection improved.

    Technical note updated. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field
    accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team.
    
    Diffed Contents:
@@ -1,7 +1 @@
-Cause: File magic patterns for Python were insufficient.
+Previously, "magic" patterns for Python were insufficient. The file utility was therefore unable to detect a Python script according to the Python function definition. With this update, detection of Python is improved, and Python scripts are properly recognized.-
-Consequence: File was not able to detect Python script according to the Python function definition.
-
-Fix: New magic pattern has been added to detect Python script according to the Python function definition.
-
-Result: Python detection improved.

Created attachment 569432 [details]
sample files

I am afraid that the fix has introduced some regressions in text file detection.
Although not all files were identified properly with old file pkg, new file version does worse job with these files.

[ksrot@dhcp-30-102 samples]$ rpm -q file
file-5.04-13.el6.x86_64
[ksrot@dhcp-30-102 samples]$ file *
API_CHANGES.txt:   Python script text executable
artist-tmpl.html:  Python script text executable
capi.txt:          Python script text executable
dstat-paper.txt:   Python script text executable
extend.txt:        Python script text executable
FAQ.txt:           Python script text executable
index.txt:         Python script text executable
INTERACTIVE:       Python script text executable
lxml-ep2008.txt:   Python script text executable
lxmlhtml.txt:      Python script text executable
PKG-INFO:          Python script text executable
pkg_resources.txt: Python script text executable
programmers-guide: Python script text executable
README.txt:        Python script text executable
syntax.html:       Python script text executable
tutorial.txt:      Python script text executable


[ksrot@dhcp-30-102 samples]$ rpm -q file
file-5.04-11.el6.x86_64
[ksrot@dhcp-30-102 samples]$ file *
API_CHANGES.txt:   ASCII English text
artist-tmpl.html:  ASCII Java program text
capi.txt:          FORTRAN program
dstat-paper.txt:   ASCII English text
extend.txt:        ASCII English text
FAQ.txt:           ISO-8859 English text
index.txt:         ASCII English text
INTERACTIVE:       ASCII English text
lxml-ep2008.txt:   UTF-8 Unicode English text
lxmlhtml.txt:      ASCII English text
PKG-INFO:          ASCII C++ program text
pkg_resources.txt: ASCII English text
programmers-guide: ASCII English text
README.txt:        ASCII English text
syntax.html:       ASCII English text, with very long lines
tutorial.txt:      ASCII English text

OK, to give previous comment some context:
On my filesystem new file version fixed recognition for ~150 python files and introduced "regression" for 27 files. Most of those text files actually contains pieces of Python code therefore the new recognition is not that odd. It might be more obvious from the full paths:

/usr/lib64/python2.6/idlelib/extend.txt:
/usr/lib64/rhythmbox/plugins/context/tmpl/artist-tmpl.html:
/usr/lib/mailman/scripts/driver:
/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/DecoratorTools-1.7-py2.6.egg-info/PKG-INFO:
/usr/share/doc/dbus-python-0.83.0/API_CHANGES.txt:
/usr/share/doc/dbus-python-0.83.0/tutorial.txt:
/usr/share/doc/dstat-0.7.0/dstat-paper.txt:
/usr/share/doc/numpy-1.3.0/docs-f2py/FAQ.txt:
/usr/share/doc/pykickstart-1.74.6/programmers-guide:
/usr/share/doc/python-lxml-2.2.3/doc/capi.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-lxml-2.2.3/doc/FAQ.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-lxml-2.2.3/doc/lxmlhtml.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-lxml-2.2.3/doc/performance.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-lxml-2.2.3/doc/s5/lxml-ep2008.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-mako-0.3.4/doc/build/content/filtering.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-mako-0.3.4/doc/build/content/namespaces.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-mako-0.3.4/doc/build/content/syntax.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-mako-0.3.4/doc/build/output/syntax.html:
/usr/share/doc/python-mako-0.3.4/doc/build/templates/formatting.html:
/usr/share/doc/python-matplotlib-0.99.1.2/INTERACTIVE:
/usr/share/doc/python-nose-0.10.4/README.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-setuptools-0.6.10/docs/build/html/_sources/pkg_resources.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-setuptools-0.6.10/docs/build/html/_sources/setuptools.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-setuptools-0.6.10/docs/pkg_resources.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-setuptools-0.6.10/docs/setuptools.txt:
/usr/share/doc/python-simplejson-2.0.9/docs/_sources/index.txt:
/usr/src/debug/xulrunner-1.9.2.17/mozilla-1.9.2/js/src/prmjtime.cpp:

I believe it makes sense to proceed with the fix.

The File tool can't work 100% especially in the source code detection problem. I admit this patch brings some regressions, but it still improves detection of Python scripts a lot. With the way how File works it's not possible to do some in-depth detection which would be beneficial in cases like this one.

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2012-0391.html