Hello trid users,
some days ago i handled some Novell message files with msg file name
extension.
Just for interest i look on my disc for other files with that file
name extensions. Some still are described as "Unknown!" by TrID (see
appended output/trid-old.txt).
For comparison reason i also run file(1) command on such samples. Some are
described as ASCII text and others are described as data.
Here i look only at the "data" described files. Some are only found in
directory where the Norton Commander was installed. So i know that such MSG
samples are part of Norton Commander suite.
So i run tridscan on these samples and i get a trid definition file
msg-norton.trid.xml.
Characteristic for such message files is a typical ASCII phrase like Abort
or Aborting like in NCVIEW.MSG at the beginning. That is expressed by XML
construct like:
<Bytes>41626F7274</Bytes>
<ASCII> A b o r t</ASCII>
<Pos>0</Pos>
The messages seems to be separated by null bytes. Therefor such files are not
considered as ASCII text by file command.
Furthermore all message contain some same error messages. That are
found in global strings section by lines like:
<String>ATTEMPT TO WRITE ON WRITE-PROTECTED DISK</String>
<String>DRIVE OR DEVICE NOT READY</String>
<String>PRINTER OUT OF PAPER</String>
<String>UNKNOWN DISK DRIVE</String>
<String>ERROR ON DEVICE %</String>
<String>SHARING VIOLATION</String>
<String>ERROR ON DRIVE %</String>
<String>SECTOR NOT FOUND</String>
<String>UNKNOWN COMMAND</String>
<String>NETWORK ERROR</String>
<String>NON-DOS DISK</String>
<String>BAD REQUEST</String>
<String>WRITE FAULT</String>
<String>DATA ERROR</String>
<String>READ FAULT</String>
<String>SEEK ERROR</String>
<String>FORMATTED</String>
<String>ABORT</String>
<String>FILE</String>
I have only tested with Norton Commander versions DOS 5.50 English and
DOS PACKER.MSG of Windows 2.01. So i mention this fact in remark line.
Zhe German version of MSG files are not matched because the start with
German word "Abbrechen" instead English "Abort".
For most MSG example exist a DOS executable with same main name and
file name extension EXE. The message file is used by executable to
display text messages. If the message file is missing the
corresponding program complains with "Unable to read message file".
Some information about Norton Commander is found on Wikipedia. This is
expressed by reference URL line like:
<RefURL>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander</RefURL>
With the new definition the undetected Norton Commander messages are now
described (see appended output/trid-new-v.txt). TrID definition, some
examples and output are stored in archive norton.zip. I hope that my XML
file can be used in future version of triddefs.
The file command displays "application/x-dosexec" for Norton Commander
DOS executable (See output/file-5.39-i.txt) whereas TrID only
displays a generic "application/octet-stream" (see
output/trid-v-old.txt)
With best wishes
Jörg Jenderek
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