Visual C PreCompiled header file
application/octet-stream
Magic Bytes
Offset: 0
56 45 52 53 49 4F 4E 20
The Visual C++ Precompiled Header (PCH) is a proprietary binary format developed by Microsoft for use within the MSVC compiler environment. It stores the processed state of header files to accelerate compilation by reducing the redundant parsing of source code across project modules. While generally considered safe as a build artifact, these files are compiler-specific and are being gradually replaced by modern C++ modules in newer development workflows.
Validation Code
How to validate .pch files in Python
Python
def is_pch(file_path: str) -> bool:
"""Check if file is a valid PCH by magic bytes."""
signature = bytes([0x56, 0x45, 0x52, 0x53, 0x49, 0x4F, 0x4E, 0x20])
with open(file_path, "rb") as f:
return f.read(8) == signatureHow to validate .pch files in Node.js
Node.js
function isPCH(buffer: Buffer): boolean {
const signature = Buffer.from([0x56, 0x45, 0x52, 0x53, 0x49, 0x4F, 0x4E, 0x20]);
return buffer.subarray(0, 8).equals(signature);
}
Go
func IsPCH(data []byte) bool {
signature := []byte{0x56, 0x45, 0x52, 0x53, 0x49, 0x4F, 0x4E, 0x20}
if len(data) < 8 {
return false
}
return bytes.Equal(data[:8], signature)
}API Endpoint
GET
/api/v1/pch
curl https://filesignature.org/api/v1/pch