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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.

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
       options	(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 pic
       ture, but probably wouldnt be the best choice and  so  would  give  an
       option  like  "priority=2".  Priorities range from 0 to 9, with 0 being
       the lowest 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
       using 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
       
	      Specifies the program to run to view a file of  the  given  con
	      tent-type.   This option setting connot 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=
	      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=
	      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
	      format.  The "composetyped" option is necessary  when  the  Con
	      tent-type information must include auxiliary parameters, and the
	      composition program must then know enough about mail formats  to
	      produce output that includes the mail type information.

       edit=
	      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=
	      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=
	      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
	      options 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=
	      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=
	      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=
	      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
	      extensions  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
       depend on, recommend, or suggest mime-support.	Instead,  they	should
       just  put  something  like  the	following  in  the postinst and postrm
       scripts.

	   if [ -x /usr/sbin/update-mime ]; then
	       update-mime
	   fi

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

AUTHOR
       update-mime was written by Brian White 

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



Debian Project			 16th Jul 2006			UPDATE-MIME(8)




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