Detecting MIME type in PHP

Question

I'm looking for the best (possible on most PHP 5.2 installs and still actively developed) way to detect a files MIME type in PHP.

I'm aware of the mime_content_type() method and the Fileinfo extension, however mime_content_type() is unreliable and deprecated, and Fileinfo doesn't come in a "standard" PHP (5.2) install.

Do I have any other options?

Answer 1

(lol sorry I realized this was asked months ago as I was finishing up. oh well. might as well add this...)

If it's a *nix server you could use file command.

file -bi <filepath>

You'd have to use "exec" in PHP to do that I guess? I'm new to PHP so don't quote me on this but...

$content_type = exec("file -bi " . escapeshellarg($filepath));

I didn't test it so you might need to escape the path string and format the output.

Dunno if this will be more reliable than the other methods.