1MIMETYPE(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation MIMETYPE(1)
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6 mimetype - Determine file type
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9 mimetype [options] [-] files
10
12 This script tries to determine the mime type of a file using the Shared
13 MIME-info database. It is intended as a kind of file(1) work-alike, but
14 uses mimetypes instead of descriptions.
15 If one symlinks the file command to mimetype it will behave a little
17 more compatible, see "--file-compat". Commandline options to specify
18 alternative magic files are not implemented the same because of the
19 conflicting data formats. Also the wording of the descriptions will
20 differ.
21 For naming switches I followed the manpage of file(1) version 4.02 when
23 possible. They seem to differ completely from the spec in the
24 'utilities' chapter of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (POSIX).
25
27 -a, --all
28 Show output of all rules that match the file.
29 TODO: this method now just returns one match for each method
31 (globs, magic, etc.).
32 -b, --brief
34 Do not prepend filenames to output lines (brief mode).
35 --database=mimedir:mimedir:...
37 Force the program to look in these directories for the shared mime-
38 info database. The directories specified by the basedir
39 specification are ignored.
40 -d, --describe
42 Print file descriptions instead of mime types, this is the default
43 when using "--file-compat".
44 -D, --debug
46 Print debug information about how the mimetype was determined.
47 -f namefile, --namefile=namefile
49 Read the names of the files to be examined from the file 'namefile'
50 (one per line) before the argument list.
51 --file-compat
53 Make mimetype behave a little more file(1) compatible. This is
54 turned on automatically when you call mimetype by a link called
55 'file'.
56 A single '-' won't be considered a separator between options and
58 filenames anymore, but becomes identical to "--stdin". ( You can
59 still use '--' as separator, but that is not backward compatible
60 with the original file command. ) Also the default becomes to print
61 descriptions instead of mimetypes.
62 -F string, --separator=string
64 Use string as custom separator between the file name and its
65 mimetype or description, defaults to ':' .
66 -h, --help
68 -u, --usage
69 Print a help message and exits.
70 -i, --mimetype
72 Use mime types, opposite to "--describe", this is the default when
73 _not_ using "--file-compat".
74 -L, --dereference
76 Follow symbolic links.
77 -l code, --language=code
79 The language attribute specifies a two letter language code, this
80 makes descriptions being outputted in the specified language.
81 -M, --magic-only
83 Do not check for extensions, globs or inode type, only look at the
84 content of the file. This is particularly useful if for some reason
85 you don't trust the name or the extension a file has.
86 -N, --noalign
88 Do not align output fields.
89 --output-format
91 If you want an alternative output format, you can specify a format
92 string containing the following escapes:
93 %f for the filename
95 %d description
96 %m mime type
97 Alignment is not available when using this, you need to post-
99 process the output to do that.
100 --stdin
102 Determine type of content from STDIN, less powerful then normal
103 file checking because it only uses magic typing. This will happen
104 also if the STDIN filehandle is a pipe.
105 To use this option IO::Scalar needs to be installed.
107 -v, --version
109 Print the version of the program and exit.
110
112 XDG_DATA_HOME
113 XDG_DATA_DIRS
114 These variables can list base directories to search for data files.
115 The shared mime-info will be expected in the "mime" sub directory
116 of one of these directories. If these are not set, there will be
117 searched for the following directories:
118 $HOME/.local/share/mime
120 /usr/local/share/mime
121 /usr/share/mime
122 See also the "XDG Base Directory Specification"
124 <http://freedesktop.org/Standards/basedir-spec>
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127 The base dir for all data files is determined by two environment
128 variables, see "ENVIRONMENT".
129 BASE/mime/packages/SOURCE.xml
131 All other files are compiled from these source files. To re-compile
132 them use update-mime-database(1).
133 BASE/mime/globs
135 Compiled information about globs.
136 BASE/mime/magic
138 Compiled information about magic numbers.
139 BASE/mime/MEDIA/SUBTYPE.xml
141 Descriptions of a mimetype in multiple languages, used for the
142 "--describe" switch.
143
145 If a file has an empty mimetype or an empty description, most probably
146 the file doesn't exist and the given name doesn't match any globs. An
147 empty description can also mean that there is no description available
148 in the language you specified.
149 The program exits with a non-zero exit value if either the commandline
151 arguments failed, a module it depends on wasn't found or the shared
152 mime-info database wasn't accessible. See File::MimeInfo for more
153 details.
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156 The '--all' switch doesn't really show all matches, but only one per
157 mime-typing method. This needs to be implemented in the modules first.
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160 If you find bugs, please file them in our Github issue tracker at
161 <https://github.com/mbeijen/File-MimeInfo/issues>.
162 mimetype doesn't provide a switch for looking inside compressed files
164 because it seems to me that this can only be done by un-compressing the
165 file, something that defeats the purpose. On the other hand the option
166 should exist for strict compatibility with file(1). Possibly a subclass
167 should be made for this one day.
168
170 Jaap Karssenberg <pardus@cpan.org> Maintained by Michiel Beijen
171 <mb@x14.nl>
172
174 Copyright (c) 2003, 2012 Jaap G Karssenberg. All rights reserved. This
175 program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
176 under the same terms as Perl.
177 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
179 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
180 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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183 file(1), update-mime-database(1), File::MimeInfo(3),
184 <http://freedesktop.org/Software/shared-mime-info>
185perl v5.34.0 2022-03-07 MIMETYPE(1)