# phpman > perldoc > MIME::Types ## NAME [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown) - Definition of MIME types ## INHERITANCE [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown) is a Exporter ## SYNOPSIS use [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown); my $mt = [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown)->new(...); # [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown) object my $type = $mt->type('text/plain'); # [MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown) object my $type = $mt->mimeTypeOf('gif'); my $type = $mt->mimeTypeOf('picture.jpg'); my @types = $mt->httpAccept('text/html, application/json;q=0.1') ## DESCRIPTION MIME types are used in many applications (for instance as part of e-mail and HTTP traffic) to indicate the type of content which is transmitted. or expected. See RFC2045 at Sometimes detailed knowledge about a mime-type is need, however this module only knows about the file-name extensions which relate to some filetype. It can also be used to produce the right format: types which are not registered at IANA need to use 'x-' prefixes. This object administers a huge list of known mime-types, combined from various sources. For instance, it contains all IANA types and the knowledge of Apache. Probably the most complete table on the net! [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown) and daemons (fork) If your program uses fork (usually for a daemon), then you want to have the type table initialized before you start forking. So, first call my $mt = [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown)->new; Later, each time you create this object (you may, of course, also reuse the object you create here) you will get access to the same global table of types. ## METHODS ### Constructors [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown)->new(%options) Create a new "[MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown)" object which manages the data. In the current implementation, it does not matter whether you create this object often within your program, but in the future this may change. -Option --Default db_file only_complete only_iana skip_extensions db_file => FILENAME The location of the database which contains the type information. Only the first instantiation of this object will have this parameter obeyed. [2.10] This parameter can be globally overruled via the "PERL_MIME_TYPE_DB" environment variable, which may be needed in case of PAR or other tricky installations. For PAR, you probably set this environment variable to "inc/lib/MIME/types.db" only_complete => BOOLEAN Only include complete MIME type definitions: requires at least one known extension. This will reduce the number of entries --and with that the amount of memory consumed-- considerably. In your program you have to decide: the first time that you call the creator ("new") determines whether you get the full or the partial information. only_iana => BOOLEAN Only load the types which are currently known by IANA. skip_extensions => BOOLEAN Do not load the table to map extensions to types, which is quite large. ### Knowledge $obj->addType($type, ...) Add one or more TYPEs to the set of known types. Each TYPE is a "[MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown)" which must be experimental: either the main-type or the sub-type must start with "x-". Please inform the maintainer of this module when registered types are missing. Before version [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown) version 1.14, a warning was produced when an unknown IANA type was added. This has been removed, because some people need that to get their application to work locally... broken applications... $obj->extensions() Returns a list of all defined extensions. $obj->listTypes() Returns a list of all defined mime-types by name only. This will not instantiate [MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown) objects. See types() $obj->mimeTypeOf($filename) Returns the "[MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown)" object which belongs to the FILENAME (or simply its filename extension) or "undef" if the file type is unknown. The extension is used and considered case-insensitive. In some cases, more than one type is known for a certain filename extension. In that case, the preferred one is taken (for an unclear definition of preference) example: use of mimeTypeOf() my $types = [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown)->new; my $mime = $types->mimeTypeOf('gif'); my $mime = $types->mimeTypeOf('picture.jpg'); print $mime->isBinary; $obj->type($string) Returns the "[MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown)" which describes the type related to STRING. [2.00] Only one type will be returned. [before 2.00] One type may be described more than once. Different extensions may be in use for this type, and different operating systems may cause more than one "[MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown)" object to be defined. In scalar context, only the first is returned. $obj->types() Returns a list of all defined mime-types. For reasons of backwards compatibility, this will instantiate [MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown) objects, which will be returned. See listTypes(). HTTP support $obj->httpAccept($header) [2.07] Decompose a typical HTTP-Accept header, and sort it based on the included priority information. Returned is a sorted list of type names, where the highest priority type is first. The list may contain '*/*' (accept any) or a '*' as subtype. Ill-formated typenames are ignored. On equal qualities, the order is kept. See RFC2616 section 14.1 example: my @types = $types->httpAccept('text/html, application/json;q=0.9'); $obj->httpAcceptBest($accept|\@types, @have) [2.07] The $accept string is processed via httpAccept() to order the types on preference. You may also provide a list of ordered @types which may have been the result of that method, called earlier. As second parameter, you pass a LIST of types you @have to offer. Those need to be [MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown) objects. The preferred type will get selected. When none of these are accepted by the client, this will return "undef". It should result in a 406 server response. example: my $accept = $req->header('Accept'); my @have = map $mt->type($_), qw[text/plain text/html]; my @ext = $mt->httpAcceptBest($accept, @have); $obj->httpAcceptSelect($accept|\@types, @filenames|\@filenames) [2.07] Like httpAcceptBest(), but now we do not return a pair with mime-type and filename, not just the type. If $accept is "undef", the first filename is returned. example: use [HTTP::Status](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTTP%3A%3AStatus/markdown) ':constants'; use [File::Glob](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/File%3A%3AGlob/markdown) 'bsd_glob'; # understands blanks in filename my @filenames = bsd_glob "$imagedir/$fnbase.*; my $accept = $req->header('Accept'); my ($fn, $mime) = $mt->httpAcceptSelect($accept, @filenames); my $code = defined $mime ? HTTP_NOT_ACCEPTABLE : HTTP_OK; ## FUNCTIONS The next functions are provided for backward compatibility with [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown) versions [0.06] and below. This code originates from Jeff Okamoto and others. ### by_mediatype This function takes a media type and returns a list or anonymous array of anonymous three-element arrays whose values are the file name suffix used to identify it, the media type, and a content encoding. TYPE can be a full type name (contains '/', and will be matched in full), a partial type (which is used as regular expression) or a real regular expression. ### by_suffix Like "mimeTypeOf", but does not return an "[MIME::Type](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3AType/markdown)" object. If the file +type is unknown, both the returned media type and encoding are empty strings. example: use of function by_suffix() use [MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown) 'by_suffix'; my ($mediatype, $encoding) = by_suffix('image.gif'); my $refdata = by_suffix('image.gif'); my ($mediatype, $encoding) = @$refdata; ### import_mime_types This method has been removed: mime-types are only useful if understood by many parties. Therefore, the IANA assigns names which can be used. In the table kept by this "[MIME::Types](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MIME%3A%3ATypes/markdown)" module all these names, plus the most often used temporary names are kept. When names seem to be missing, please contact the maintainer for inclusion. ## SEE ALSO This module is part of MIME-Types distribution version 2.22, built on October 27, 2021. Website: ## LICENSE Copyrights 1999-2021 by [Mark Overmeer <>]. For other contributors see ChangeLog. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See