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GNOME
!!!GNOME
NAME
MIME type of files
MIME type definition files.
MIME key information
Special key used by the GNOME system
AUTHOR
----
!!NAME


GNOME MIME configuration files


The GNOME system uses MIME types to classify content. Each
MIME type on the GNOME system has a number of attributes
attached to it. Some of these attributes have a special
meaning to the GNOME system.
!!MIME type of files


There are two ways of classifying a file in the GNOME
system: by matching their extension or a regular expression
with their name or by its content. GNOME applications use
one of those two methods depending on speed contraints and
the specific setup. The MIME types available on the system
can be configured at runtime by putting special files in
either the GNOME MIME directory
''(${prefix}/share/mime-info)'' or the user
''~/.gnome/mime-info'' directory.
!!MIME type definition files.


The routines that classify a file by its name, use the
contents of all of the files with the extension ''.mime''
from the ''${prefix}/share/mime-info'' directory and the
''~/.gnome/mime-info'' to build the database for filename
matching. The latter is supported to enable users to provide
their mime types to extend the system defaults.


Application that wish to install their own MIME types only
need to install a file in this directory.


The file ''${prefix}/share/mime-info/gnome.mime'' is
special, as it contains the defaults for gnome, and is read
first. In addition, the file
''~/.gnome/mime-info/user.mime'' is read last. This will
guarantee that there is a way to set system defaults, and
there is a way for the user to override them. There is
currently no way to tell anything about the order of the
other files in those directories, nor is there anyway to
override system defaults yet.


The format is the following:


mime-type-name
ext[[,priority]: ext1 ext2 ext3
ext[[,priority]: ext4
regex[[,priority]: regex1
regex[[,priority]: regex2
where


For example, for a vCalendar application, this file would be
installed:


------ calendar.mime  -------
application/v-calendar:
ext: vcf
-----------------------------
!!MIME key information


To add keys to a MIME type, it is necessary to install a
file with the extension ''.keys'' in the
''${prefix}/share/mime-info'' directory or in the
''~/.gnome/mime-info'' directory. The former is for
system-provided mime-information and the latter is to enable
the user to extend the actions as provided by the
system.


The file ''${prefix}/share/mime-info/gnome.keys'' is
special, as it contains the defaults for gnome, and is read
first. In addition, the file
''~/.gnome/mime-info/user.keys'' is read last. This will
guarantee that there is a way to set system defaults, and
there is a way for the user to override them. There is
currently no way to tell anything about the order of the
other files in those directories, nor is there anyway to
override system defaults yet.


The ''.keys'' files have the following
format:


mime-type-match:
[[]key=value
Above, the ''key'' is the key that is being defined and ''value'' is the value we bind to it. The optional ''[[LANG]'' represents a language in which this definition is valid. If this part is specified, then the definition will only be valid if LANG matches the setting of the environment variable LANG. The LANG setting is used to provide keys which can be displayed to the user in a localized way.


This is an example to bind the key ''open'' to all of the
mime-types matching ''image/*'' and the
''icon-filename'' key is bound to the
''/opt/gimp/share/xcf.png'' value:


image/*:
open=gimp %f
image/x-xcf:
icon-filename=/opt/gimp/share/xcf.png
This will make the GIMP the handler for the open action. Files of type xcf would use the filename pointed in the ''icon-filename'' key.


''%f gets'' interpolated with the file name or the list
of file names that matched this mime-type.


As you can see from the example above, a ''.keys'' file
does not need to provide all of the values, it can just
provide or override some of the actions.


User defined bindings in ''.keys file will take''
precedence over system installed files.
!!Special key used by the GNOME system


The following keys are currently used in the GNOME
desktop:


''open''


Open the file with this command.


''icon-filename''


The filename with the icon that should be used to represent
files of this type.


''view''


Command to view the file contents.


''ascii-view''


A command that should be used to do an ascii-rendering of
the file. Used as a fallback by the filemanager if a ''view
action'' does not exist.


''fm-open''


file-manager open. If present, the file manager will use
this action instead of the value in open to perform this
action (the filemanager for example will open archive files
as if they were directories by using the VFS).


''fm-view''


file-manager view. If present, invoking the view opertion on
the file manager will use the value defined here instead of
the value in


''fm-ascii-view''


Fallback operation for the file manager as
well.


Those keys are also queried on the metadata (except in the
cases where the lookup would be too expensive).
!!AUTHOR


This manual page has been written by Miguel de Icaza
(miguel@gnu.org)
----
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Last edited on Monday, June 3, 2002 6:55:56 pm by "perry"
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