mimesniff

1.1.1 verified Fri May 01 auth: no python

A pure Python implementation of the MIME sniffing algorithm from the WHATWG MIME Sniffing specification. Version 1.1.1 supports Python >=3.4 and allows sniffing MIME types from file-like objects or pre-read headers. Uses a decision tree based on byte patterns. Released infrequently.

pip install mimesniff

Common errors

error TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str' ↓

cause Passing a string (text) to sniff() instead of bytes.

fix

Encode the string to bytes: sniff(my_string.encode('utf-8'))

error ImportError: cannot import name 'sniffer' from 'mimesniff' ↓

cause Trying to import from a submodule that doesn't exist (e.g., from mimesniff.sniffer import sniff).

fix

Use 'from mimesniff import sniff'.

Warnings

gotcha sniff() expects bytes or a binary file-like object. Passing a string or text mode file will raise TypeError or produce incorrect results. ↓

fix Open files in binary mode (e.g., open('file', 'rb')) and ensure input is bytes.

gotcha MimeSniffer class is partially implemented; sniff() function is the recommended entry point. The class API may change in future versions. ↓

fix Use sniff() function for stability.

deprecated The 'PathLike' support was removed in version 1.0.1 for Python 3.4 compatibility. Using pathlib.Path objects may fail. ↓

fix Read the file bytes manually before passing to sniff().

Imports

MimeSniffer
```
from mimesniff import MimeSniffer
```
sniff
wrong
```
from mimesniff.sniffer import sniff
```
correct
```
from mimesniff import sniff
```
sniff is a top-level function in mimesniff, not a submodule.

Quickstart

Call sniff() with bytes or a file-like object (opened in binary mode) to get the sniffed MIME type as a string.

import io
from mimesniff import sniff

# Example from bytes
mime_type = sniff(b'%PDF-1.4')
print(mime_type)  # application/pdf

# Example from file-like object
with open('example.html', 'rb') as f:
    mime_type = sniff(f)
    print(mime_type)  # text/html