def file(self, filename):
        """
        Returns a textual description of the contents of the argument passed
        as a filename or None if an error occurred and the MAGIC_ERROR flag
        is set.  A call to errno() will return the numeric error code.
        """
        try:  # attempt python3 approach first
            if isinstance(filename, bytes):
                bi = filename
            else:
                bi = bytes(filename, 'utf-8')
            return str(_file(self._magic_t, bi), 'utf-8')
        except:
            return _file(self._magic_t, filename.encode('utf-8'))
Returns a textual description of the contents of the argument passed
        as a filename or None if an error occurred and the MAGIC_ERROR flag
        is set.  A call to errno() will return the numeric error code.