LWP::MediaTypes (3)

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NAME

LWP::MediaTypes - guess media type for a file or a URL

SYNOPSIS

 use LWP::MediaTypes qw(guess_media_type);
 $type = guess_media_type("/tmp/foo.gif");

DESCRIPTION

This module provides functions for handling media (also known as ) types and encodings. The mapping from file extensions to media types is defined by the media.types file. If the ~/.media.types file exists it is used instead. For backwards compatibility we will also look for ~/.mime.types.

The following functions are exported by default:

guess_media_type( $filename )

guess_media_type( $uri )

guess_media_type( $filename_or_uri, $header_to_modify )

This function tries to guess media type and encoding for a file or a

URI

. It returns the content type, which is a string like "text/html". In array context it also returns any content encodings applied (in the order used to encode the file). You can pass a

URI

object reference, instead of the file name.

If the type can not be deduced from looking at the file name, then guess_media_type() will let the "-T" Perl operator take a look. If this works (and "-T" returns a

TRUE

value) then we return text/plain as the type, otherwise we return application/octet-stream as the type.

The optional second argument should be a reference to a HTTP::Headers object or any object that implements the $obj->header method in a similar way. When it is present the values of the 'Content-Type' and 'Content-Encoding' will be set for this header.

media_suffix( $type, ... )

This function will return all suffixes that can be used to denote the specified media type(s). Wildcard types can be used. In a scalar context it will return the first suffix found. Examples:

  @suffixes = media_suffix('image/*', 'audio/basic');
  $suffix = media_suffix('text/html');

The following functions are only exported by explicit request:

add_type( $type, @exts )

Associate a list of file extensions with the given media type. Example:

    add_type("x-world/x-vrml" => qw(wrl vrml));

add_encoding( $type, @ext )

Associate a list of file extensions with an encoding type. Example:

 add_encoding("x-gzip" => "gz");

read_media_types( @files )

Parse media types files and add the type mappings found there. Example:

    read_media_types("conf/mime.types");

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1995-1999 Gisle Aas.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.