Missing or Incorrect Extension?

File extensions are not always used, or used consistently. So what happens when a file does not have an extension, or the file does not seem to be what the extension says it is supposed to be?

That is when the file command can be helpful.

If you create or find a file without an extension, use the file command to find out what the file is. For example, if you have a file called saturday with no file estension, type:

      file saturday
    

and you will see ASCII text, or something similar, telling you it is a text file.