IsBinary

1.0.1 verified Sat May 09 auth: no python

A lightweight pure Python package to check if a file is binary or text (fork of binaryornot). Current version 1.0.1, released April 2023. Uses heuristic scanning of a configurable chunk of bytes.

pip install isbinary

Common errors

error ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'binaryornot' ↓

cause The old package binaryornot is replaced by isbinary.

fix

Install isbinary and update imports: from isbinary import is_binary_file.

error AttributeError: module 'binaryornot.check' has no attribute 'is_binary' ↓

cause The package was renamed; import path is different.

fix

Use from isbinary import is_binary_file.

error ImportError: cannot import name 'is_binary' from 'isbinary' ↓

cause Function was renamed from is_binary to is_binary_file in v1.0.0.

fix

Use from isbinary import is_binary_file and call is_binary_file(path).

Warnings

breaking In v1.0.0 the package name changed from binaryornot to isbinary. All imports must be updated. ↓

fix Replace `from binaryornot.check import is_binary` with `from isbinary import is_binary_file`.

breaking The function name changed from `is_binary` to `is_binary_file` in v1.0.0. ↓

fix Change all calls from `is_binary(path)` to `is_binary_file(path)`.

gotcha The default chunk size increased from 1024 to 2048 bytes. This may affect detection of very small files or performance. ↓

fix If needed, adjust chunk size with the `chunk_size` parameter: `is_binary_file(path, chunk_size=1024)`.

gotcha Python 2 support was removed. Only Python 3.8+ is supported. ↓

fix Ensure you run on Python 3.8 or later.

Imports

is_binary_file
wrong
```
from binaryornot.check import is_binary
```
correct
```
from isbinary import is_binary_file
```
Old import from the original binaryornot library; v1.0.0 broke compatibility and renamed the function.

Quickstart

Basic usage to detect binary vs text file.

from isbinary import is_binary_file

result = is_binary_file('path/to/file')
print(result)  # True if binary, False if text

# Or via CLI: python -m isbinary path/to/file