Very Computer

Would somebody mind explaining to me the purpose of the mailcap
and the mime.type files and, if you'd be so nice, post a sample.

cheers,

------------------
Nigel Longmire

Here is what i have for mailcap mime.types..
You can get a FAQ for mime from comp.mail.mime

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[ .mailcap 9K ]
# Copyright (c) 1991 Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore)
#
# Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this material
# for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided
# that the above copyright notice and this permission notice
# appear in all copies, and that the name of Bellcore not be
# used in advertising or publicity pertaining to this
# material without the specific, prior written permission
# of an authorized representative of Bellcore.  BELLCORE
# MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY
# OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE.  IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS",
# WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES.
#
# Prototype Mailcap file
# Note that support for text & multipart are "built in" to metamail,
# as are rudimentary support for message, and application.
# However, any of these may be overridden in mailcap.
#
# Note that users may override or extend this with a .mailcap
# file in their own directory.  However, there is NO NEED
# for them to copy entries from this file, as metamail will
# pick up entries from both the system and personal mailcap files.
#
# Note that the effect of the following is to send ALL audio subtypes to the
# showaudio program, but to compose audio (e.g. in the mailto program)
# using "audio/basic" as the type.

###
### Begin Red Hat Mailcap
###

audio/mod; /usr/bin/tracker %s
audio/*; /usr/bin/play %s

image/*; xv %s

video/*; xanim %s
video/mpeg; xmpeg %s

application/pgp; pgp -f < %s | metamail; needsterminal; \
       test=test %{encapsulation}=entity
application/pgp; pgp %s; needsterminal

###
### End Red Hat Modifications
###

message/partial; showpartial %s %{id} %{number} %{total}
message/external-body; showexternal %s %{access-type} %{name} %{site} %{directory} %{mode} %{server}; \
        needsterminal; composetyped = extcompose %s; \
        description="A reference to data stored in an external location"

# You can alter the above entry to only use certain access-types by
# adding a clause like the following before the "description=" line:
#       test=test %{access-type}  = mail-server;  \

# If you have an interactive Postscript interpreter, you should think carefully
# before replacing lpr with it in the following line, because PostScript
# can be an enormous security hole.  It is RELATIVELY harmless
# when sent to the printer...
application/postscript ; lpr %s \; echo SENT FILE TO PRINTER ; description="A Postscript File";\
        compose="getfilename Postscript %s"

# The following should be commented out if you do NOT have safe-tcl
# and should be uncommented if you DO have safe-tcl
#multipart/enabled-mail; show-enabled %F
#application/safe-tcl; swish -safe -messaging -f %s

# The following should be commented out if you do NOT have atomicmail
# and should be uncommented if you DO have ATOMICMAIL
#application/atomicmail; atomicmail %s; compose=surveyor.am -p %s; description="An interactive ATOMICMAIL survey"
# The following should be used instead if you have atomicmail but not TK.
#application/atomicmail; atomicmail %s ; needsterminal
#application/atomicmail; atomicmail %s; compose=surveyor.am -p %s; description="An interactive ATOMICMAIL survey"; needsterminal

# The following give rudimentary capabilities to read old andrew format
# even to non-Andrew sites, since "ezview" comes with metamail.
x-be2;     ezview %s ; copiousoutput
application/andrew-inset;     ezview %s ; copiousoutput; edit=ez -d %s; compose="ez -d %s"; description="An Andrew inset/document"

# The following gives rudimentary capability for receiving
# text mail in the ISO-8859-1 character set, which covers many European
# languages, and the ISO-8859-8 character set, which includes Hebrew
# Note that the pipe to tr ensures that the "ISO" is case-insensitive.
text/richtext; shownonascii iso-8859-8 -e richtext -p %s; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`"  = iso-8859-8; copiousoutput
text/richtext; shownonascii iso-8859-1 -e richtext -p %s; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`"  = iso-8859-1; copiousoutput
text/plain; shownonascii iso-8859-8 %s; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" = iso-8859-8; copiousoutput
text/plain; shownonascii iso-8859-1 %s; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" = iso-8859-1; copiousoutput
text/enriched; shownonascii iso-8859-8 -e richtext -e -p %s; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`"  = iso-8859-8; copiousoutput
text/enriched; shownonascii iso-8859-1 -e richtext -e -p %s; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`"  = iso-8859-1; copiousoutput

# The following displays Japanese text at sites where the "kterm" program is installed:
text/plain; kterm -geometry +0+0  -e more %s /dev/null; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" = iso-2022-jp

text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
# If you have Andrew at your site, you MIGHT prefer to replace the
# above line with the following one, but probably won't because
# ez takes so long to start up.
# text/richtext; richtoatk < %s | ezview - ; copiousoutput
text/enriched; richtext -e %s; copiousoutput

# The following is a VERY rough cut at showing mail from Sun's openwindows mailtool
# Old version
# x-sun-attachment; sun-to-mime %s
x-sun-attachment; sun2mime %s
audio-file; sun-audio-file %s
postscript-file; lpr %s \; echo SENT FILE TO PRINTER
default; sun-message.csh %s %{encoding}; needsterminal
mail-file; sun-message.csh %s %{encoding}; needsterminal
sun-deskset-message; sun-message.csh %s %{encoding}; needsterminal

# The following is used for distributing metamail patches
# It should probably be used only by those administering metamail at a site.
# You will need to replace "source-tree-root" with the real root of your
# actual metamail source tree.
# You can also modify this line to get metamail patches from some trusted
# server other than thumper, if there is one -- man patch-metamail" for help.
application/x-metamail-patch; cat %s > /dev/null \; patch-metamail source-tree-root %{patchnumber}; needsterminal

# The following is for support of MacMIME, especially those
# the Columbia AppleTalk package (CAP) installed.
# For more info about MacMIME, send email to p...@nada.kth.se
#
# If you don't have CAP, and haven't changed rcvAppleSingle
# or sndAppleSingle, you should comment out this line.
application/applefile; rcvAppleSingle %s; compose="sndAppleSingle %s";description="An Apple Macintosh file in AppleSingle format"

#
# The following is for interoperability with Z-Mail version 3.0 and beyond.
# To enable this compatibility, uncomment all of the following lines.
#
# For more info about Z-Mail, send email to i...@z-code.com
#
#application/x-movie; movieplayer %s; compose=moviemaker %s; \
#       description="Movie"; \
#        x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/movie.xbm"
#application/x-inventor; examine %s; description="Inventor file"; \
#        x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/inventor.xbm"
#application/x-zm-fax; zfax %s; description="Z-Fax document"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/fax.xbm"
#application/x-showcase; showcase %s; compose=showcase %s; \
#       description="Showcase document"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/showcase.xbm"
#application/x-jot; jot %s; compose=jot %s; description="Jot document"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/jot.xbm"
#image/x-sgi; ipaste %s; compose=imgworks %s; description="SGI image"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/image.xbm"
#audio/x-aiff; playaiff %s; compose=recordaiff -t 60 %s;        \
#       description="AIFF Audio"; x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/sound.xbm"
#image/x-bitmap; bitmap %s; description="X11 bitmap"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/bitmap.xbm"
#image/x-xpm1; olpixmap %s; description="OL pixmap"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/bitmap.xbm"
#application/x-island-write; IslandWrite %s; compose=IslandWrite %s; \
#       description="IslandWrite document"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/islwrite.xbm"
#application/x-island-draw; IslandDraw %s; compose=IslandDraw %s; \
#       description="IslandDraw document"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/isldraw.xbm"
#application/x-island-paint; IslandPaint %s; compose=IslandPaint %s; \
#       description="IslandPaint document"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/islpaint.xbm"
#application/x-framemaker; maker -f %s; compose=maker -f %s; \
#       description="FrameMaker document"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/frame.xbm"
#application/x-wingz; Wingz %s; compose=Wingz %s; \
#       description="Wingz document"; \
#       x11-bitmap="/usr/lib/Zmail/bitmaps/wingz.xbm"
# Old Z-mail format
#x-zm-multipart: sun-to-mime %s

#Another suggested way to use FrameMaker
# application/x-framemaker; clclient -f %s \; sleep 60 ; \
#       compose="getfilename FrameMaker %s"

# A common problem with the mailcap mechanism is getting differential
# behavior from different programs.  This problem is compounded by the fact
# that some programs, notably Mosaic, do not implement the "test" clause in
# mailcap files.  The following two mailcap entries should give you a model
# for a hack that will allow you to get differential behavior from Mosaic and
# metamail in spite of this fact.  It exploits the fact that metamail always
# sets the MM_MAILER variable (if only to "unknown") while Mosaic does not.
#
# foo/bar; echo mosaic; test=test "$MM_MAILER" = ""
# foo/bar; echo not mosaic
text/plain; hcode -ik %s | less ; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" = iso-2022-kr
text/plain; hcode -ik %s | less ; test=test "`echo %{charset} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" = euc-kr
audio/x-pn-realaudio; raplayer %s
audio/*; auplay %s
audio-file; auplay %s

[ .mime.types < 1K ]

#
#mime types added by Progressive Networks http://www.realaudio.com
#
type=audio/x-pn-realaudio      exts=ra,ram

type=audio/*    exts=snd,au,wav,voc