update-mime

UPDATE-MIME(8)               Update MIME Programs               UPDATE-MIME(8)

NAME
       update-mime - create or update MIME information

SYNOPSIS
       update-mime [no parameters]

DESCRIPTION
       update-mime  updates  the /etc/mailcap file to reflect mime information
       changed by a Debian package during installation or removal.

   OPTIONS
       --local Generate files in the current user's home directory instead  of
       the /etc directory.  This allows users to create a custom ordering con-
       figuration and get a complete ~/.mailcap file out of it.  In this local
       mode,  the  order overriding file (see below) will be looked for in the
       ~/.mailcap.order file.

OVERRIDING ORDER
       The order of entries in the /etc/mailcap file can be altered by editing
       the  /etc/mailcap.order file.  Please see the mailcap.order(5) man page
       for more information.

CREATING ENTRIES
       To create entries in the mailcap file, packages need to create  a  file
       in  the /usr/lib/mime/packages directory.  In this file goes the verba-
       tim desired mailcap entries.  In addition to the standard  mailcap  op-
       tions (described below) is a new priority option.  Specifying this will
       provide for simple ranking of programs within a given  mime  type.   An
       animation viewer, for example, may be able to display a static picture,
       but probably wouldn't be the best choice and so would  give  an  option
       like "priority=2".  Priorities range from 0 to 9, with 0 being the low-
       est and 9 being the highest.  If the  priority  option  is  omitted,  a
       value of 5 is used.

       The following are standard options that can be specified in the mailcap
       entry.  Options are separated by semicolons (;) but must all be on  the
       same line.  Each line should look like:

         mime/type; viewer; option; another=val; etc; priority=5

       Mime  types  of  the  form  "class/*" and even "*/*" are now acceptable
       (they were previously disallowed).  When using "class/*", it is  proba-
       bly  a good idea to add a "priority=[1-4]" option so specific rules us-
       ing the default priority  will  get  chosen  first.   If  using  "*/*",
       though,  you  probably  want  to add a "priority=0" option to make that
       rule a "last resort".

   Commands
       <program-string>
              Specifies the program to run to view a file of  the  given  con-
              tent-type.   This option setting cannot be omitted.  An implicit
              "view=" can be considered before it.  When writing an entry that
              has no viewer, use a value of false in this space.

       compose=<program-string>
              The  "compose" command may be used to specify a program that can
              be used to compose a new body or body part in the given  format.
              Its  intended  use is to support mail composing agents that sup-
              port the composition of multiple types of  mail  using  external
              composing  agents.   The  result of the composing program may be
              data that is not yet suitable for mail transport -- that  is,  a
              Content-Transfer-Encoding may need to be applied to the data.

       composetyped=<program-string>
              The "composetyped" command is similar to "compose", but is to be
              used when the composing program needs to  specify  the  Content-
              type header field to be applied to the composed data.  The "com-
              pose" option is simpler, and is preferred for use with  existing
              (non-mail-oriented)  programs for composing data in a given for-
              mat.  The "composetyped" option is necessary when  the  Content-
              type information must include auxiliary parameters, and the com-
              position program must then know enough  about  mail  formats  to
              produce output that includes the mail type information.

       edit=<program-string>
              The  "edit" command may be used to specify a program that can be
              used to edit a body or body part in the given format.   In  many
              cases, it may be identical in content to the "compose" command.

       print=<program-string>
              The "print" command may be used to specify a program that can be
              used to print a message or body part in the given format.

   Modifiers
       These options are modifiers to all the commands specified on  the  com-
       mand line.

       test=<conditional>
              The  "test"  option  may be used to test some external condition
              (e.g., the machine architecture, or the window system in use) to
              determine whether or not the mailcap line applies.  It specifies
              a program to be run to test some condition.  If the test  fails,
              a  subsequent  mailcap  entry will be sought.  Multiple test op-
              tions are not permitted -- since a test can call a  program,  it
              can already be arbitrarily complex.

              Note:  When  testing for X by looking at the DISPLAY environment
              variable, please use one of:

                      test=test -z "$DISPLAY"     (no X)
                or    test=test -n "$DISPLAY"     (have X)

              Many programs recognize these strings and optimize for them.

       needsterminal
              The "needsterminal" option, if given, indicates  that  the  com-
              mands must be run on an interactive terminal.  This is needed to
              inform window-oriented user agents that an interactive  terminal
              is needed.  (The decision is not left exclusively to the command
              because in some circumstances it may not be  possible  for  such
              programs  to  tell whether or not they are on interactive termi-
              nals.)  The needsterminal command applies to the  view,  compose
              and  edit commands, if they exist.  Note that this is NOT a test
              -- it is a requirement for the environment in which the  program
              will  be  executed,  and  will typically cause the creation of a
              terminal window when not executed on either a real terminal or a
              terminal window.

       copiousoutput
              The  "copiousoutput" option, if given, indicates that the output
              from the view-command will be an extended stream of  output  and
              is  to be interpreted as advice to the UA (User Agent mail-read-
              ing program) that the output should  be  either  paged  or  made
              scrollable.  Note that it is probably a mistake if needsterminal
              and copiousoutput are both specified.

   Content-Type Info
       These options provide additional information about the  given  content-
       type.

       description=<string>
              The  "description"  option simply provides a textual description
              that describes the type of data, to be used optionally  by  mail
              readers  that  wish to describe the data before offering to dis-
              play it.

       textualnewlines
              The "textualnewlines" option, if given, indicates that this type
              of  data  is line-oriented and that, if encoded in a binary for-
              mat, all newlines should be converted to canonical  form  (CRLF)
              before  encoding,  and  will be in that form after decoding.  In
              general, this is needed only if there is line-oriented  data  of
              some  type other than text/* or non-line-oriented data that is a
              subtype of text.

       x11-bitmap=<pathname>
              The "x11-bitmap" option names a file, in X11 bitmap  (xbm)  for-
              mat,  which points to an appropriate icon to be used to visually
              denote the presence of this kind of data.

       nametemplate=<string>
              The "nametemplate" option gives a file name format, in which  %s
              will  be  replaced  by a short unique string to give the name of
              the temporary file to be passed to the viewing command.  This is
              only  expected to be relevant in environments where filename ex-
              tensions are meaningful, e.g., one could specify that a GIF file
              being passed to a gif viewer should have a name ending in ".gif"
              by using "nametemplate=%s.gif".

DEPENDENCIES
       Packages that wish to provide MIME access to themselves should not  de-
       pend  on, recommend, or suggest mime-support, as the the file they cre-
       ate in /usr/lib/mime/packages will cause update-mime  to  be  automati-
       cally run via a Dpkg trigger.

DESKTOP ENTRIES
       In  addition  to  the  abovementioned mechanism update-mime also parses
       desktop entries in /usr/share/applications/  to  generate  mailcap  en-
       tries.  These  entries  are  given  a  lower  priority  than  those  in
       /usr/lib/mime/packages.

SEE ALSO
       mailcap.order(5), deb-triggers(1), RFC-2046, RFC-1524

AUTHOR
       update-mime was written by Brian White <bcwhite@pobox.com>

COPYRIGHT
       update-mime is in the public domain (the only true "free").

Debian Project                   12th Feb 2012                  UPDATE-MIME(8)