/usr/share/doc/shared-mime-info/shared-mime-info-spec.html/index.html

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN""http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Shared MIME-info Database</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="Unified system"
HREF="x34.html"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="article"
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000FF"
VLINK="#840084"
ALINK="#0000FF"
><DIV
CLASS="ARTICLE"
><DIV
CLASS="TITLEPAGE"
><H1
CLASS="title"
><A
NAME="AEN2"
>Shared MIME-info Database</A
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="authorgroup"
><A
NAME="AEN3"
></A
><H3
CLASS="corpauthor"
>&#13;			<A
HREF="http://www.freedesktop.org"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;			X Desktop Group
			</A
>
		</H3
><H3
CLASS="author"
><A
NAME="AEN6"
>Thomas Leonard</A
></H3
><DIV
CLASS="affiliation"
><DIV
CLASS="address"
><P
CLASS="address"
><CODE
CLASS="email"
>&#60;<A
HREF="mailto:tal197 at users.sf.net"
>tal197 at users.sf.net</A
>&#62;</CODE
></P
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><HR></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="TOC"
><DL
><DT
><B
>Table of Contents</B
></DT
><DT
>1. <A
HREF="index.html#AEN14"
>Introduction</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>1.1. <A
HREF="index.html#AEN16"
>Version</A
></DT
><DT
>1.2. <A
HREF="index.html#AEN19"
>What is this spec?</A
></DT
><DT
>1.3. <A
HREF="index.html#AEN30"
>Language used in this specification</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>2. <A
HREF="x34.html"
>Unified system</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>2.1. <A
HREF="x34.html#s2_layout"
>Directory layout</A
></DT
><DT
>2.2. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN124"
>The source XML files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.3. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN290"
>The MEDIA/SUBTYPE.xml files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.4. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN301"
>The glob files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.5. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN322"
>The magic files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.6. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN372"
>The XMLnamespaces files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.7. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN378"
>The icon files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.8. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN385"
>The treemagic files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.9. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN413"
>The mime.cache files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.10. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN430"
>Storing the MIME type using Extended Attributes</A
></DT
><DT
>2.11. <A
HREF="x34.html#subclassing"
>Subclassing</A
></DT
><DT
>2.12. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN446"
>Recommended checking order</A
></DT
><DT
>2.13. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN465"
>Non-regular files</A
></DT
><DT
>2.14. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN477"
>Content types for volumes</A
></DT
><DT
>2.15. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN484"
>URI scheme handlers</A
></DT
><DT
>2.16. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN489"
>Security implications</A
></DT
><DT
>2.17. <A
HREF="x34.html#AEN493"
>User modification</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>3. <A
HREF="x497.html"
>Contributors</A
></DT
><DT
><A
HREF="b518.html"
>References</A
></DT
></DL
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="AEN14"
>1. Introduction</A
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN16"
>1.1. Version</A
></H2
><P
>&#13;This is version 0.20 of the Shared MIME-info Database specification, last updated 8 October 2010.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN19"
>1.2. What is this spec?</A
></H2
><P
>&#13;Many programs and desktops use the MIME system[<SPAN
CLASS="citation"
>MIME</SPAN
>]
to represent the types of files. Frequently, it is necessary to work out the
correct MIME type for a file. This is generally done by examining the file's
name or contents, and looking up the correct MIME type in a database.
		</P
><P
>&#13;It is also useful to store information about each type, such as a textual
description of it, or a list of applications that can be used to view or edit
files of that type.
		</P
><P
>&#13;For interoperability, it is useful for different programs to use the same
database so that different programs agree on the type of a file and
information is not duplicated. It is also helpful for application authors to
only have to install new information in one place.
		</P
><P
>&#13;This specification attempts to unify the MIME database systems currently in
use by GNOME[<SPAN
CLASS="citation"
>GNOME</SPAN
>], KDE[<SPAN
CLASS="citation"
>KDE</SPAN
>] and
ROX[<SPAN
CLASS="citation"
>ROX</SPAN
>], and provide room for future extensibility.
		</P
><P
>&#13;The MIME database does NOT store user preferences (such as a user's preferred
application for handling files of a particular type). It may be used to store
static information, such as that files of a certain type may be viewed with
a particular application.
		</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN30"
>1.3. Language used in this specification</A
></H2
><P
>&#13;The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD",
"SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",  "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be
interpreted as described in RFC 2119[<SPAN
CLASS="citation"
>RFC-2119</SPAN
>].
		</P
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="x34.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
>Unified system</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>
shared-mime-info 1.3-1 / usr / share / doc / shared-mime-info / shared-mime-info-spec.html / index.html
