Hacking the DROID Signature File for Characterization

Identification of a format can be approached from many angles. Often a magic

number will be used at the beginning of a file. This may be strengthened by the addition of similarly consistent bytes at the end of a file or indeed any part of the bitstream inbetween. Using the sample file format we created last week the magic number to identify it is specified

Now is the time for a shout-out to @exponentialdecay for his file format signature development utility (https://ffdev.info/) and the SPARQL endpoint to #PRONOM data (btw, I can't find the URL any more...!).

And also to @richardlehane for Siegfried + Roy, always incredibly useful tools.

#digipres

Shattering the eyeglass: Using Kaitai Structs to dissect the eyeglass’ contents

by @beet_keeper

In my post from 2012: Genesis of a File Format, I created a new file format – the Eyeglass file format. The format provides a mechanism to persist information about a patient’s eye health following a checkup at an opticians. Today in 2023 we can use the format to understand how to make use of Kaitai Structs for understanding file formats.

Given the disclaimer that I am not actually an optician and that the format is purely illustrative, let’s look at the eyeglass again below.

#code #coding #digipres #digitalLiteracy #digitalPreservation #fileFormat #fileFormatAnalysis #fileFormats #kaitai #pronom #yyyy

What information is in a file format identification report?

by @beet_keeper

In early 2022, I was finally able to get around to writing a paper that I had been thinking about for the better part of a decade. The paper, “Fractal in Detail: What Information Is in a File Format Identification Report?” was published in the Code4Lib journal Issue 53.

The paper takes a deep dive into the fractal contents of file format identification reports exported from tools like Siegfried and DROID.

Let’s take a brief look the article and its contents below.

#code4lib #code4libJournal #digipres #digitalPreservation #droid #fileFormatAnalysis #fileFormatIdentification #fileFormats #filedriller #formatIdentification #freud #linting #metadata #preservationMetadata #pronom #puid #puids #siegfried #staticAnalysis #technicalMetadata

Architecture of The-FR.org

by @beet_keeper

Last week I blogged about the publication of a new linked data format registry based on the work I did previously at The National Archives, UK.

Where the work goes, we will have to see. Open sourcing it was an important goal of the short sprint. Partly because I hope it demonstrates an architecture that can be adopted for a similar registry, and it may also provide a code-base that can be adapted for similar, linked open data projects. This blog provides an overview of that architecture…

#Data #formatRegistry #LinkedOpenData #PRONOM #PRONOMLite #SoftwareArchitecture #SPARQL #theFrOrg