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.TH "CHA-MIME.TYPES" "5"
.SH mime.types
Chawan uses the mime.types file to map file extensions to MIME types
(also known as \f[CR]Content\-Type\f[R]).
.PP
MIME types in turn are used by mailcap to decide how to present a
certain file to the user (display as text, use external viewer, save,
etc.)
See \f[B]cha\-mailcap\f[R](5) for details of how that works.
.SS Search path
Chawan parses all mime.types files defined in
\f[CR]external.mime\-types\f[R].
When no mime.types file is found, the built\-in MIME type associations
are used.
.PP
The default search path for mime.types files is:
.IP
.EX
$HOME/.mime.types:/etc/mime.types:/usr/etc/mime.types:/usr/local/etc/mime.types
.EE
.SS Format
The mime.types file is a list of whitespace\-separated columns.
The first column represents the mime type, all following columns are
file extensions.
.PP
Lines starting with a hash character (#) are recognized as comments, and
are ignored.
.PP
Example:
.IP
.EX
# comment
application/x\-example	exmpl	ex
.EE
.PP
This mime.types file would register the file extensions \(lqexmpl\(rq
and \(lqex\(rq to be recognized as the mime type
\f[CR]application/x\-example\f[R].
.SS Note
Chawan only uses mime.types files for finding mailcap entries; buffers
use an internal mime.types file for content type detection instead.
.PP
The default mime.types file only includes file formats that buffers can
handle, which is rather limited (at the time of writing, 7 file
formats).
Therefore it is highly recommended to configure at least one external
mime.types file if you use mailcap.
.SS See also
\f[B]cha\f[R](1) \f[B]cha\-mailcap\f[R](5)