mailcap(5)

NAME

mailcap - MIME capabilities file, as used by af

DESCRIPTION

The mailcap file lists the known MIME content-types, and

describes how to display, print, and compose each content-type.

Lines in the file which start with a '#' are treated as

comments and ignored, as are blank lines. Each other line con

tains a single mailcap entry. Long entries may be continued onto

the next line by ending them with a '´.

Each mailcap entry consists of at least a content-type,

and a command to execute to display that content-type. It may be

followed by one or more optional fields, which give further in

formation about how to handle the content-type.

The content-type may be any valid MIME content-type, in

the form type/subtype. In addition, if no subtype is specified,

or a '*' is used as the subtype, then the content-type will match

any subtype of the primary type.

The command may be any UNIX command, and is called to dis

play messages of the given content-type. All commands must fol

low the same rules, including those specfied in optional fields.

Any '´ or ';' characters in a command string must be quot

ed with a strings:

%s Is replaced by the name of a temporary file con

taining the message body.

%t Is replaced by the content-type of the message, ex

cluding any parameters. %{"param"} Is replaced by the value of

the parameter named in param, or a blank string if no such param

eter has been specified.

%n Is replaced by the number of body parts if the mes

sage is a multipart message, or '0' otherwise.

%F If the message is a multipart message, then this is

replaced with a space-separated list of values, two for each body

part. The values give first the content-type of the body part,

and then the name of a temporary file where it has been stored.

Optional Fields

The optional fields, which can give more information about

a content-type are:

test="command"

Describes a command which should be run successful

ly (ie. returning 0) before the mailcap entry is used. The most

common is "test -n $DISPLAY".

print="command"

Describes the command used to print the content

type.

edit="command"

Describes a command to edit a file containing the

body of a message of the given content-type.

compose="command"
composetyped="command"

Describes a command to compose a file containing

the body of a message of the given content-type. Any command

specified by the composetyped command, must also include a

Content-Type: header in the output, which allows the composing

command to add parameters to the content-type.

desc="text"

A textual description of the content-type.

file="template"

If any command includes the %s escape, then this

field can specify a format for the filename. If %s appears in

the template, then it will be replaced with characters to make

the name unique.

needsterminal

Indicates that the command is interactive, and

needs control of a terminal window to function.

copiousoutput

Indicates that the output of the command should be

displayed via a pager.

textualnewlines

Forces af to treat newlines in the message body as

it would for text, even though the content-type is not a subtype

of text.

x11-bitmap="filename"

Names a file where a bitmap which can be used to

mark this content-type is stored. Not used by af.

EXAMPLE

# A partial mailcap file

# Handle text/enriched and text/richtext
text/enriched; richtext -e; copiousoutput;

description="Enriched text"
text/richtext; richtext; copiousoutput; de

scription="Richtext"

# Display audio/basic using the audio device
audio/basic; cat > /dev/audio; descrip

tion="An audio fragment"

# Handle PostScript files by printing them
# (this is a security hole)
application/postscript; lpr %s; descrip

tion="A PostScript File"

FILES

$HOME/.mailcap user's mailcap file

/etc/af/mailcap

global mailcap file for af.

/etc/mailcap,
/usr/etc/mailcap,
/usr/local/etc/mailcap

global mailcap files for all mailers.

Author

Malc Arnold, based on a specification by Nathaniel Boren

stein.

SEE ALSO

af(1), ``The Af Reference Manual'', rfc1524.

MAIL

CAP(5)