NAME¶
File::MimeInfo - Determine file type
SYNOPSIS¶
use File::MimeInfo;
my $mime_type = mimetype($file);
DESCRIPTION¶
This module can be used to determine the mime type of a file. It tries to
implement the freedesktop specification for a shared MIME database.
For this module shared-mime-info-spec 0.13 was used.
This package only uses the globs file. No real magic checking is used. The
File::MimeInfo::Magic package is provided for magic typing.
If you want to detemine the mimetype of data in a memory buffer you should use
File::MimeInfo::Magic in combination with IO::Scalar.
This module loads the various data files when needed. If you want to hash data
ealier see the "rehash" methods below.
EXPORT¶
The method "mimetype" is exported by default. The methods
"inodetype", "globs", "extensions",
"describe", "mimetype_canon" and "mimetype_isa"
can be exported on demand.
METHODS¶
- "new()"
- Simple constructor to allow Object Oriented use of this
module. If you want to use this, include the package as "use
File::MimeInfo ();" to avoid importing sub
"mimetype()".
- "mimetype($file)"
- Returns a mimetype string for $file, returns undef on
failure.
This method bundles "inodetype" and "globs".
If these methods are unsuccessful the file is read and the mimetype defaults
to 'text/plain' or to 'application/octet-stream' when the first ten chars
of the file match ascii control chars (white spaces excluded). If the file
doesn't exist or isn't readable "undef" is returned.
- "inodetype($file)"
- Returns a mimetype in the 'inode' namespace or undef when
the file is actually a normal file.
- "globs($file)"
- Returns a mimetype string for $file based on the filename
and filename extensions. Returns undef on failure. The file doesn't need
to exist.
Behaviour in list context (wantarray) is unspecified and will change in
future releases.
- "default($file)"
- This method decides whether a file is binary or plain text
by looking at the first few bytes in the file. Used to decide between
"text/plain" and "application/octet-stream" if all
other methods have failed.
The spec states that we should check for the ascii control chars and let
higher bit chars pass to allow utf8. We try to be more intelligent using
perl utf8 support.
- "extensions($mimetype)"
- In list context, returns the list of filename extensions
that map to the given mimetype. In scalar context, returns the first
extension that is found in the database for this mimetype.
- "describe($mimetype, $lang)"
- Returns a description of this mimetype as supplied by the
mime info database. You can specify a language with the optional parameter
$lang, this should be the two letter language code used in the xml files.
Also you can set the global variable $File::MimeInfo::LANG to specify a
language.
This method returns undef when no xml file was found (i.e. the mimetype
doesn't exist in the database). It returns an empty string when the xml
file doesn't contain a description in the language you specified.
Currently no real xml parsing is done, it trusts the xml files are
nicely formatted.
- "mimetype_canon($mimetype)"
- Returns the canonical mimetype for a given mimetype.
Deprecated mimetypes are typically aliased to their canonical variants.
This method only checks aliases, doesn't check whether the mimetype
exists.
Use this method as a filter when you take a mimetype as input.
- "mimetype_isa($mimetype)"
- "mimetype_isa($mimetype, $mimetype)"
- When give only one argument this method returns a list with
mimetypes that are parent classes for this mimetype.
When given two arguments returns true if the second mimetype is a parent
class of the first one.
This method checks the subclasses table and applies a few rules for
implicite subclasses.
- "rehash()"
- Rehash the data files. Glob information is preparsed when
this method is called.
If you want to by-pass the XDG basedir system you can specify your database
directories by setting @File::MimeInfo::DIRS. But normally it is better to
change the XDG basedir environment variables.
- "rehash_aliases()"
- Rehashes the mime/aliases files.
- "rehash_subclasses()"
- Rehashes the mime/subclasses files.
DIAGNOSTICS¶
This module throws an exception when it can't find any data files, when it can't
open a data file it found for reading or when a subroutine doesn't get enough
arguments. In the first case you either don't have the freedesktop mime info
database installed, or your environment variables point to the wrong places,
in the second case you have the database installed, but it is broken (the mime
info database should logically be world readable).
TODO¶
Make an option for using some caching mechanism to reduce init time.
Make "describe()" use real xml parsing ?
LIMITATIONS¶
Perl versions prior to 5.8.0 do not have the ':utf8' IO Layer, thus for the
default method and for reading the xml files utf8 is not supported for these
versions.
Since it is not possible to distinguish between encoding types (utf8, latin1,
latin2 etc.) in a straightforward manner only utf8 is supported (because the
spec recommends this).
This module does not yet check extended attributes for a mimetype. Patches for
this are very welcome.
BUGS¶
Please mail the author when you encounter any bugs.
AUTHOR¶
Jaap Karssenberg <pardus@cpan.org>
Copyright (c) 2003, 2012 Jaap G Karssenberg. All rights reserved. This program
is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
terms as Perl itself.
SEE ALSO¶
File::BaseDir, File::MimeInfo::Magic, File::MimeInfo::Applications,
File::MimeInfo::Rox
- related CPAN modules
- File::MMagic
- freedesktop specifications used
- http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec
<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec>,
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/basedir-spec
<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/basedir-spec>,
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec
<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec>
- freedesktop mime database
- http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/shared-mime-info
<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/shared-mime-info>