Better, more accurate mime type detection in Python

Question

Python's mimetypes module isn't especially accurate and bases its results on the file extension. The only way I can think of to get a more accurate result is to call the Unix file command with subprocess.Popen as so:

import subprocess
mimetype = subprocess.Popen(['file', '/path/to/file', '--mime-type', '-b'], 
    stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout.read().strip()

This feels inelegant. Is there a better way to do this without having to call file but still achieving the same level of accuracy?

Answer 1

You could try out : magic's mimetype

Answer 2

I use something similar but slightly abbreviated:

import subprocess
mimeType = subprocess.check_output(['file', '-ib', '/path/to/file']).strip()

It may not be more elegant, but it's shorter and a bit easier to read, and I always prefer that.