digital-preservation · MancunianSam · Oct 7, 2025 · Sep 29, 2025 · Sep 29, 2025 · Sep 29, 2025
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # DROID (Digital Record Object Identification)  
 
 [![CI](https://github.com/digital-preservation/droid/workflows/CI/badge.svg)](https://github.com/digital-preservation/droid/actions?query=workflow%3ACI)
-[![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/digital-preservation/droid/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://coveralls.io/github/digital-preservation/droid?branch=master)
-[![Maven Central](https://maven-badges.herokuapp.com/maven-central/uk.gov.nationalarchives/droid/badge.svg)](https://search.maven.org/search?q=g:uk.gov.nationalarchives)
+[![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/digital-preservation/droid/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://coveralls.io/github/digital-preservation/droid?branch=main)
+[![Maven Central](https://maven-badges.herokuapp.com/maven-central/uk.gov.nationalarchives/droid/badge.svg)](https://central.sonatype.com/search?q=g%3Auk.gov.nationalarchives+droid)
 
 ## General Information
 
@@ -17,9 +17,9 @@ DROID is a platform-independent Java application. It can be invoked from two int
 
 DROID allows files and folders to be selected from a file system for identification. This file list can be saved at any point. After the identification process had been run, the results can be output in various report formats, including CSV.
 
-DROID is made available under the [New BSD License](https://raw.github.com/digital-preservation/droid/master/license.md).
+DROID is made available under the [New BSD Licence](https://raw.github.com/digital-preservation/droid/master/license.md).
 
-More information can be found on the [DROID github pages](https://digital-preservation.github.io/droid/).
+More information can be found on the [DROID GitHub pages](https://digital-preservation.github.io/droid/).
 
 ## Installing DROID
 
@@ -42,23 +42,23 @@ $ droid -R directory
 ...
 ~~~
 
-If you don't need every bit of information that DROID outputs by default you can make it print only a limited set of columns using the `-co`, or `--columns` option (note the `-a`, it's required in this case!):
+If you don't need every bit of information that DROID outputs by default, you can make it print only a limited set of columns using the `-co`, or `--columns` option (note the `-a`; it's required in this case!):
 
 ~~~console
 $ droid -co NAME PUID -a file.jpg
 "NAME","PUID"
 "file.jpg","fmt/1507"
 ~~~
 
-To remove even more noise from the output you can use the `-qc`, or `--quote-commas` switch which tells DROID to use quotes only where necessary:
+To remove even more noise from the output, you can use the `-qc`, or `--quote-commas` switch which tells DROID to use quotes only where necessary:
 
 ~~~console
 $ droid -qc -co NAME PUID -a file.jpg
 NAME,PUID
 file.jpg,fmt/1507
 ~~~
 
-Beyond these basic invocations there are many additional options for advanced tweaking of DROID's operation. To learn about them run:
+Beyond these basic invocations, there are many additional options for advanced tweaking of DROID's operation. To learn about them run:
 
 ~~~console
 $ droid --help
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ Type: Container Version:  20230822  File name: container-signature-20230822.xml
 Type: Container Version:  20231127  File name: container-signature-20231127.xml
 ~~~
 
-If for some reason you want to use another, possibly older signature file for identification you can change the default with the `-s`, or `--set-signature-file` option (remember to switch back to the latest version when you are done!):
+If for some reason you want to use another, possibly older signature file for identification, you can change the default with the `-s`, or `--set-signature-file` option (remember to switch back to the latest version when you are done!):
 
 ~~~console
 $ droid -s 114
@@ -104,21 +104,21 @@ Default signature file updated. Version: 20230822  File name: container-signatur
 
 ## Building DROID
 
-DROID can be built from source using Maven. The source code can be obtained from the Github repository at [https://github.com/digital-preservation/droid](https://github.com/digital-preservation/droid)
+DROID can be built from source using Maven. The source code can be obtained from the GitHub repository at [https://github.com/digital-preservation/droid](https://github.com/digital-preservation/droid)
 
 Once the code is cloned into a folder (e.g. `droid`), executing `mvn clean install` inside it will build the code. After a successful build, two archives are provided inside the `droid-binary/target` folder.
 
-### Linux / OSX users
+### Linux / macOS users
 
-You will need JAVA 8 to 17 installed to run DROID.
+You will need JAVA 21 installed to run DROID.
 
 Unpack the archive `droid-binary-${VERSION}-bin.zip`, then use the `droid.sh` script to run the application.
 
 ### Windows users
 Archive  `droid-binary-${VERSION}-bin-win64-with-jre.zip`
 
 
-You will need JAVA 8 to 17 installed to run DROID. For Windows users who might not be able to install JAVA, the provided bundle includes JAVA 17.
+You will need JAVA 21 installed to run DROID. For Windows users who might not be able to install JAVA, the provided bundle includes JAVA 21.
 
 Unpack the archive `droid-binary-${VERSION}-bin-win64-with-jre.zip`, then use the `droid.bat` script to run the application.
 
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ DROID can now put a signature directly inside a `Sequence` attribute on the `<By
 
 The full syntax can be used in either binary or container signature files.
 
-## Developer related guidance
+## Developer-related guidance
 
-For any detais about contributing, testing, releasing, please check the [wiki](https://github.com/digital-preservation/droid/wiki)
+For any details about contributing, testing, releasing, please check the [wiki](https://github.com/digital-preservation/droid/wiki)
 
diff --git a/Signature syntax.md b/Signature syntax.md
@@ -14,15 +14,15 @@ The signature syntax compiled into XML by PRONOM is the original syntax defined
 
 Container signatures support a wider syntax than binary signatures, for example allowing whitespace and ASCII strings. For the most part, this extended syntax just makes the signatures more human readable.  In a few cases some new capabilities are supported that PRONOM can't currently compile for binary signatures.
 
-All of the syntax can be used in either binary or container signatures in DROID itself, but PRONOM won't be able to compile container syntax into XML for binary signatures if you want to submit them to TNA.
+All the syntax can be used in either binary or container signatures in DROID itself, but PRONOM won't be able to compile container syntax into XML for binary signatures if you want to submit them to TNA.
 
 Container specific syntax is marked in the descriptions below.
 
 ### Value matching
 The following syntax can be used to match bytes.
 
 #### Bytes:  00 FF
-Bytes to match are written as two digit, case insensitive hex values.
+Bytes to match are written as two-digit, case-insensitive hex values.
 ```
 ff Fe A1 00
 ```
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ A single character enclosed in single quotes can also be used as in place of a b
 _Note:_ due to a bug in the byteseek library, only ASCII characters are currently supported by DROID.  Characters over 127 may cause incorrect compilation, as it attempts to render the characters in the system default character set, which is probably not ISO-8859-1.
 
 #### Byte ranges: \[n:m]
-To match a byte within a range of values, we can use a byte range. This is written as two byte values separated with a colon, all enclosed in square brackets.  Bytes are specified as 2 digit hex values.
+To match a byte within a range of values, we can use a byte range. This is written as two byte values separated with a colon, all enclosed in square brackets.  Bytes are specified as 2-digit hex values.
 ```
 [30:39]
 ```
@@ -82,11 +82,11 @@ This will match all the bytes which have the 8th or 4th bit set (10001000):
 _Note:_ the bitmask is not a standard part of the original PRONOM syntax; it originates in the byteseek matching library used by DROID.  However, it is now being used in both binary and container signatures, although older versions of DROID won't be able to parse it in binary signatures.
 
 ### Alternatives: (00|F0|3C)
-If there is a set of different values that can match, they can be specified inside round brackets, with the alternatives separated by the | character.
+If there is a set of different values that can match, they can be specified inside round brackets, with the alternatives separated by the `|` character.
 ```
 (00|F0|3C)
 ```
-Alternatives can be longer than just a single byte.  In this example, three byte sequences could be matched.  Alternative sequences don't have to be the same length as each other:
+Alternatives can be longer than just a single byte. In this example, three byte sequences could be matched. Alternative sequences don't have to be the same length as each other:
 ```
 (00 01 | B0 B1 B2 | C0 C1 C2 C3)
 ```
@@ -97,13 +97,13 @@ Older binary signatures should only use hex bytes inside alternatives.  Containe
 ```
 
 #### Multi-byte sets: (00|C2|DE) or \[00 C2 DE]
-The standard PRONOM binary syntax only supports multi-byte sets by specifying them as a set of alternative bytes.  For example:
+The standard PRONOM binary syntax only supports multi-byte sets by specifying them as a set of alternative bytes. For example:
 ```
 (00|C2|DE)
 ```
 
 **Container signature syntax**
-Multi byte sets let you specify any set of bytes within square brackets.  For example:
+Multi-byte sets let you specify any set of bytes within square brackets.  For example:
 ```
 [00 C2 DE]
 ```
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ It can also include ranges or any other value matching syntax within the set:
 ```
 [00 C2 DE 'A'-'Z' &01]
 ```
-Strings can be used to specify particular byte values.  Note that the string itself doesn't match - the set matches any of the characters in the string:
+Strings can be used to specify particular byte values. Note that the string itself doesn't match - the set matches any of the characters in the string:
 ```
 ['A'-'Z' 'aeiou']
 ```
@@ -130,23 +130,23 @@ To match any byte, we can use two question marks:
 ```
 
 #### Unlimited gaps *
-To specify that there's a unlimited gap between two parts of an expression (subject to how far DROID is configured to actually scan or the end of the data, whichever comes first), we can write an asterisk.
+To specify that there's an unlimited gap between two parts of an expression (subject to how far DROID is configured to actually scan or the end of the data, whichever comes first), we can add an asterisk.
 
 The following expression will first match _30 31 23 33 4E_, and it will then search for _43 2A B1 D4 CC EF_ until the end of the data:
 ```
 30 31 23 33 4E * 43 2A B1 D4 CC EF
 ```
 
 #### Fixed gaps {n}
-To specify that there's a gap of one or more bytes we don't care about, we can write the size of the gap as a decimal number, surrounded by curly brackets:
+To specify that there's a gap of one or more bytes we don't care about, we can write the size of the gap as a decimal number, surrounded by curly braces:
 ```
 01 02 03 {128} FF FE
 ```
 
 Note that writing _{1}_ is equivalent to writing _??_.
 
 #### Variable gaps {n-m}
-To specify that there's a range of possible bytes we don't care about, we can write the range as two numbers separted by a hyphen, surrounded by curly brackets:
+To specify that there's a range of possible bytes we don't care about, we can write the range as two numbers separated by a hyphen, surrounded by curly braces:
 ```
 01 02 03 {128-256} FF FE
 ```

diff --git a/cli-tests/test/cli-test.bats b/cli-tests/test/cli-test.bats
@@ -54,14 +54,12 @@ setup() {
 
 @test "check for signature updates" {
   run $DROID_BIN -c
-  assert_output -p 'Container signature update Version 20250925 is available'
-  assert_output -p 'Binary signature update Version 121 is available'
+  assert_output 'No signature updates are available'
 }
 
 @test "download signature updates" {
   run $DROID_BIN -d
-  assert_output -p 'Signature update version 20,250,925 has been downloaded'
-  assert_output -p 'Signature update version 121 has been downloaded'
+  assert_output 'No signature updates are available'
 }
 
 @test "list signature files" {

diff --git a/droid-api/pom.xml b/droid-api/pom.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 	<parent>
 		<artifactId>droid-parent</artifactId>
 		<groupId>uk.gov.nationalarchives</groupId>
-		<version>6.9.6-SNAPSHOT</version>
+		<version>6.9.7-SNAPSHOT</version>
 		<relativePath>../droid-parent</relativePath>
 	</parent>
 
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
 			<artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
-			<version>3.18.0</version>
+			<version>3.19.0</version>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>

diff --git a/droid-api/src/main/java/uk/gov/nationalarchives/droid/internal/api/DroidAPI.java b/droid-api/src/main/java/uk/gov/nationalarchives/droid/internal/api/DroidAPI.java
@@ -227,7 +227,6 @@ public DroidAPI build() throws SignatureParseException {
             droidCore.setSignatureFile(binarySignature.toAbsolutePath().toString());
             droidCore.init();
             droidCore.setMaxBytesToScan(this.maxBytesToScan);
-            droidCore.getSigFile().prepareForUse();
             String containerVersion = StringUtils.substringAfterLast(containerSignature.getFileName().toString(), "-").split("\\.")[0];
             String droidVersion = ResourceBundle.getBundle("options").getString("version_no");
             ContainerApi containerApi = new ContainerApi(droidCore, containerSignature);

diff --git a/droid-api/src/test/java/uk/gov/nationalarchives/droid/internal/api/DroidAPISkeletonTest.java b/droid-api/src/test/java/uk/gov/nationalarchives/droid/internal/api/DroidAPISkeletonTest.java
@@ -70,6 +70,45 @@ public class DroidAPISkeletonTest {
 
     private static DroidAPI api;
 
+    /**
+     * Unlike the skeleton suite test in droid-core, the DROID Api initialises the containers which remove signatures
+     * if they're in the container file with no other signatures. There was a bug that made these work originally which
+     * has now been fixed so we need to ignore these.
+     */
+    private static final List<String> FILES_WITH_REMOVED_PUIDS = List.of("fmt-137-signature-id-204.ods",
+            "fmt-39-signature-id-128.doc",
+            "fmt-292-signature-id-309.odp",
+            "fmt-294-signature-id-312.ods",
+            "fmt-295-signature-id-314.ods",
+            "fmt-296-signature-id-316.odg",
+            "fmt-483-signature-id-905.epub",
+            "fmt-430-signature-id-644.cdr",
+            "fmt-290-signature-id-306.odt",
+            "fmt-2042-signature-id-3408.aab",
+            "fmt-136-signature-id-203.odt",
+            "fmt-291-signature-id-308.odt",
+            "fmt-429-signature-id-642.cdr",
+            "fmt-2043-signature-id-3412.aar",
+            "fmt-126-signature-id-172.ppt",
+            "fmt-294-signature-id-313.ods",
+            "fmt-125-signature-id-171.ppt",
+            "fmt-296-signature-id-315.odg",
+            "fmt-161-signature-id-292.siard",
+            "fmt-140-signature-id-207.odb",
+            "fmt-482-signature-id-906.ibooks",
+            "fmt-292-signature-id-310.odp",
+            "fmt-297-signature-id-317.odg",
+            "fmt-290-signature-id-307.odt",
+            "fmt-61-signature-id-78.xls",
+            "fmt-293-signature-id-311.odp",
+            "fmt-40-signature-id-182.doc",
+            "fmt-139-signature-id-206.odg",
+            "fmt-138-signature-id-205.odp",
+            "x-fmt-412-signature-id-199.jar",
+            "x-fmt-88-signature-id-181.ppt",
+            "x-fmt-430-signature-id-208.msg");
+
+
     @BeforeAll
     static void setup() throws IOException, SignatureParseException {
         s3Server = createS3Server();
@@ -85,7 +124,7 @@ public static Stream<SkeletonTest> data() throws IOException {
         return Stream.concat(
                         Files.list(Paths.get("../droid-core/test-skeletons/fmt")),
                         Files.list(Paths.get("../droid-core/test-skeletons/x-fmt"))
-                ).flatMap(path -> {
+                ).filter(path -> !FILES_WITH_REMOVED_PUIDS.contains(path.getFileName().toString())).flatMap(path -> {
                     Matcher matcher = FILENAME.matcher(path.getFileName().toString());
                     if (!matcher.matches()) {
                         return null;

diff --git a/droid-api/src/test/java/uk/gov/nationalarchives/droid/internal/api/DroidAPITest.java b/droid-api/src/test/java/uk/gov/nationalarchives/droid/internal/api/DroidAPITest.java
@@ -357,9 +357,9 @@ public void should_return_multiple_results_if_a_directory_is_passed_for_file_or_
 
     @Test
     public void should_report_correct_version_for_the_binary_and_container_signature() {
-        assertThat(api.getContainerSignatureVersion(), is("20240715"));
+        assertThat(api.getContainerSignatureVersion(), is("20250925"));
         assertThat(api.getDroidVersion(), is(ResourceBundle.getBundle("options").getString("version_no")));
-        assertThat(api.getBinarySignatureVersion(), is("120"));
+        assertThat(api.getBinarySignatureVersion(), is("121"));
     }
 
     static Stream<URI> emptyFileUris() {

diff --git a/droid-api/src/test/java/uk/gov/nationalarchives/droid/internal/api/DroidAPITestUtils.java b/droid-api/src/test/java/uk/gov/nationalarchives/droid/internal/api/DroidAPITestUtils.java
@@ -77,8 +77,8 @@
  */
 public class DroidAPITestUtils {
 
-    static Path signaturePath = Paths.get("../droid-results/custom_home/signature_files/DROID_SignatureFile_V120.xml");
-    static Path containerPath = Paths.get("../droid-results/custom_home/container_sigs/container-signature-20240715.xml");
+    static Path signaturePath = Paths.get("../droid-results/custom_home/signature_files/DROID_SignatureFile_V121.xml");
+    static Path containerPath = Paths.get("../droid-results/custom_home/container_sigs/container-signature-20250925.xml");
 
     public static DroidAPI createApi(URI endpointOverride) throws SignatureParseException {
         return createApi(endpointOverride, signaturePath, containerPath, null);

diff --git a/droid-binary/pom.xml b/droid-binary/pom.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
     <parent>
         <artifactId>droid-parent</artifactId>
         <groupId>uk.gov.nationalarchives</groupId>
-        <version>6.9.6-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>6.9.7-SNAPSHOT</version>
   	    <relativePath>../droid-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

diff --git a/droid-build-tools/pom.xml b/droid-build-tools/pom.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
     <parent>
         <artifactId>droid-parent</artifactId>
         <groupId>uk.gov.nationalarchives</groupId>
-        <version>6.9.6-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>6.9.7-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <relativePath>../droid-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

diff --git a/droid-command-line/pom.xml b/droid-command-line/pom.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
     <parent>
         <artifactId>droid-parent</artifactId>
         <groupId>uk.gov.nationalarchives</groupId>
-        <version>6.9.6-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>6.9.7-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <relativePath>../droid-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

diff --git a/droid-command-line/src/main/resources/options.properties b/droid-command-line/src/main/resources/options.properties
@@ -59,8 +59,8 @@ droid -Pr "profile.maxBytesToScan=32768" -a "C:\\Files\\A Folder" -p "C:\\Result
 Properties which can be overridden are those prefixed by "profile" in the droid.properties file contained in the droid home folder, \
  normally found in the .droid6 home folder under the user's home folder. These currently include the following properties:\n \
 profile.defaultThrottle = 0 \n \
-profile.defaultBinarySigFileVersion = DROID_SignatureFile_V120 \n \
-profile.defaultContainerSigFileVersion = container-signature-20240715 \n \
+profile.defaultBinarySigFileVersion = DROID_SignatureFile_V121 \n \
+profile.defaultContainerSigFileVersion = container-signature-20250925 \n \
 profile.processTar = true \n \
 profile.processZip = true \n \
 profile.processGzip = true \n \