Re: Efficiently checking the initial contents of a file

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 16 May 2008 03:16:13 -0700 (PDT) Nordlöw wrote:

> How can I efficiently using pure emacs-lisp (without calling any
> external process) investigate the first bytes of a file?
>
> My guess is
> - Open parts of the file into a buffer or string.
> - Alt 1. Switch to the buffer and do things.

(with-temp-buffer
  ;; Read the first 42 characters (not bytes) into the temp buffer.
  (insert-file-contents filename nil 0 42)
  ;; Do whatever you want to do here.
  )

David