Re: using libmagic in Emacs?

[Richard Stallman]

    > There are many features in Emacs that depend on external programs,
    > e.g. `ls' for dired, `find' and `grep', `man', `ispell', `shell',
    > `gdb', `diff', VCS tools, etc.

    I said infrastructure, not features.

I don't expect any general infrastructure to use `file', just a few
commands.  If those commands have to do their best without `file'
on some systems, it won't be a big deal.

    > When `libmagic' is available, then usually `file' is available as well
    > on the same platform.

    No.  libmagic can be bundled and compiled with Emacs.

I don't think that price is worth paying for the use of libmagic.
It is not important enough.