Mailcap
Encyclopedia
A mailcap file can be used to find the correct program to open a file with, based on MIME
information. While the name is "mailcap" and is related to MIME
(mail filetypes) it actually has use outside the domain of electronic mail (see more about this in MIME
).
In UNIX-type systems, the mailcap file is usually located at /etc/mailcap and/or $HOME/.mailcap
RFC 1524 A User Agent Configuration Mechanism For Multimedia Mail Format Information describes the format of the contents of this file.
Lines can be comments starting with the # character, or a mime-type followed by how to handle that mime type. The first part is called the content-type, and the second part is called the view-command.
For example
s with a MIME type. If the MIME type is properly set, this is unnecessary, but MIME types may be incorrectly set, or set to a generic type such as
When viewing a file, these two work together as follows:
In UNIX-type systems, the mime.types file is usually located at /etc/mime.types and/or $HOME/.mime.types and the format is simply that each line is a space-delimited list of a MIME type, followed by zero or more extensions. For example, the HTML
type can be associated with the extensions
text/html htm html
, where it used a different format; it used key-value pairs and a comma-separated list of extensions, together with a standard header, as follows.
#--Netscape Communications Corporation MIME Information
# Do not delete the above line. It is used to identify the file type.
type=text/html exts=htm,html
MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:* Text in character sets other than ASCII* Non-text attachments* Message bodies with multiple parts...
information. While the name is "mailcap" and is related to MIME
MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:* Text in character sets other than ASCII* Non-text attachments* Message bodies with multiple parts...
(mail filetypes) it actually has use outside the domain of electronic mail (see more about this in MIME
MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:* Text in character sets other than ASCII* Non-text attachments* Message bodies with multiple parts...
).
In UNIX-type systems, the mailcap file is usually located at /etc/mailcap and/or $HOME/.mailcap
RFC 1524 A User Agent Configuration Mechanism For Multimedia Mail Format Information describes the format of the contents of this file.
Lines can be comments starting with the # character, or a mime-type followed by how to handle that mime type. The first part is called the content-type, and the second part is called the view-command.
For example
video/mpeg; xmpeg %s says if a file encoded in mime has type video/mpeg, run the xmpeg program with the file name as a parameter.mime.types
An associated file is the mime.types file, which associates filename extensionFilename extension
A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding of its contents or usage....
s with a MIME type. If the MIME type is properly set, this is unnecessary, but MIME types may be incorrectly set, or set to a generic type such as
application/octet-stream, and mime.types allows one to fall back on the extension in these cases. Similarly, since many file systems do not store MIME type information, but instead rely on the filename extension, a mime.types file is frequently used by web servers to determine MIME type.When viewing a file, these two work together as follows:
mime.types associates an extension with a MIME type, while mailcap associates a MIME type with a program.In UNIX-type systems, the mime.types file is usually located at /etc/mime.types and/or $HOME/.mime.types and the format is simply that each line is a space-delimited list of a MIME type, followed by zero or more extensions. For example, the HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
type can be associated with the extensions
.htm, .html by the following line:text/html htm html
Netscape use
The mime.types file dates to NetscapeNetscape
Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. When it was an independent company, its headquarters were in Mountain View, California...
, where it used a different format; it used key-value pairs and a comma-separated list of extensions, together with a standard header, as follows.
#--Netscape Communications Corporation MIME Information
# Do not delete the above line. It is used to identify the file type.
type=text/html exts=htm,html