CHA-MIME.TYPES(5)

🎀 mime.types 🎀

ok so bestie, this is the mime.types page from the File Formats Manual — aka CHA-MIME.TYPES(5) if you're being formal about it 💅. Sit down, grab a boba, we're mapping file extensions to MIME types and it's gonna be iconic.

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✨ NAME ✨

mime.types — Chawan uses the mime.types file to map file extensions to MIME types (also known as Content-Type). periodt 💖

MIME types in turn are used by mailcap to decide how to present a certain file to you: display it as text, use an external viewer, save it, etc. — the whole vibe check of "what do I even do with this file". See cha-mailcap(5) for the deets on how that works, iykyk 🫶

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🔍 Search path 🔍

Chawan parses all mime.types files defined in external.mime-types. And when no mime.types file is found? No stress — the built-in MIME type associations get used instead 💫

The default search path for mime.types files is literally:

$HOME/.mime.types:/etc/mime.types:/usr/etc/mime.types:/usr/local/etc/mime.types

no cap, that's the whole path, all four of them, separated by colons 🌈

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📝 Format 📝

So the mime.types file is just a list of whitespace-separated columns, bestie. Column one = the mime type. Every column after that? File extensions. Slay 🦋

Lines starting with a hash character (#) are recognized as comments and get ignored — they're giving background character energy, nobody looks at them 💀

Example time:

# comment
application/x-example    exmpl     ex

So this mime.types file would register the file extensions exmpl and ex to be recognized as the mime type application/x-example. Obsessed, honestly 👑

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🙈 Note 🙈

ok important, don't skip this part:

Chawan only uses mime.types files for finding mailcap entries — buffers use an internal mime.types file for content type detection instead. Two different things, bestie, don't mix them up 😭

The default mime.types file only includes file formats that buffers can handle, which is... rather limited, ngl (at the time of writing, 7 file formats). Seven. SEVEN. So it is highly recommended to configure at least one external mime.types file if you use mailcap. This is your sign, go do it 💜

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💖 See also 💖

• cha(1)
• cha-mailcap(5)

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fr fr go set up an external mime.types file. your mailcap game will thank you 🍓

ok bye bestie, that was the whole page — made with love from the File Formats Manual, filed under CHA-MIME.TYPES(5) 💅✨🎀