# phpman > perldoc > Mail::Cap

## NAME
    [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown) - understand mailcap files

## SYNOPSIS
     my $mc   = [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown)->new;

     my $desc = $mc->description('image/gif');
     print "GIF desc: $desc\n";

     my $cmd  = $mc->viewCmd('text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1', 'file.txt');

## DESCRIPTION
    Parse mailcap files as specified in "RFC 1524 --A User Agent Configuration Mechanism For
    Multimedia Mail Format Information>. In the description below $type refers to the MIME type as
    specified in the "Content-Type" header of mail or HTTP messages. Examples of types are:

      image/gif
      text/html
      text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

    You could also take a look at the [File::MimeInfo](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/File%3A%3AMimeInfo/markdown) distribution, which are accessing tables which
    are used by many applications on a system, and therefore have succeeded the mail-cap
    specifications on modern (UNIX) systems.

## METHODS
### Constructors
    [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown)->new(%options)
        Create and initialize a new [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown) object. If you give it an argument it will try to
        parse the specified file. Without any arguments it will search for the mailcap file using
        the standard mailcap path, or the MAILCAPS environment variable if it is defined.

         -Option  --Default
          filename  undef
          take      'FIRST'

        filename => FILENAME
          Add the specified file to the list to standard locations. This file is tried first.

        take => 'ALL'|'FIRST'
          Include all mailcap files you can find. By default, only the first file is parsed, however
          the RFC tells us to include ALL. To maintain backwards compatibility, the default only
          takes the FIRST.

        example:

          $mcap = new [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown);
          $mcap = new [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown) "/mydir/mailcap";
          $mcap = new [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown) filename => "/mydir/mailcap";
          $mcap = new [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown) take => 'ALL';
          $mcap = [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown)->new(take => 'ALL');

### Run commands
    These methods invoke a suitable program presenting or manipulating the media object in the
    specified file. They all return 1 if a command was found, and 0 otherwise. You might test $? for
    the outcome of the command.

    $obj->compose($type, $file)
    $obj->edit($type, $file)
    $obj->print($type, $file)
    $obj->view($type, $file)

### Command creator
    These methods return a string that is suitable for feeding to system() in order to invoke a
    suitable program presenting or manipulating the media object in the specified file. It will
    return "undef" if no suitable specification exists.

    $obj->composeCmd($type, $file)
    $obj->editCmd($type, $file)
    $obj->printCmd($type, $file)
    $obj->viewCmd($type, $file)

### Look-up definitions
    Methods return the corresponding mailcap field for the type.

    $obj->description($type)
    $obj->field($type, $field)
        Returns the specified field for the type. Returns undef if no specification exists.

    $obj->nametemplate($type)
    $obj->textualnewlines($type)
    $obj->x11_bitmap($type)

## SEE ALSO
    This module is part of the MailTools distribution, <http://perl.overmeer.net/mailtools/>.

## AUTHORS
    The MailTools bundle was developed by Graham Barr. Later, Mark Overmeer took over maintenance
    without commitment to further development.

    [Mail::Cap](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ACap/markdown) by Gisle Aas <<aas@oslonett.no>>. [Mail::Field::AddrList](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3AField%3A%3AAddrList/markdown) by Peter Orbaek <<poe@cit.dk>>.
    [Mail::Mailer](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3AMailer/markdown) and [Mail::Send](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mail%3A%3ASend/markdown) by Tim Bunce <<Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk>>. For other contributors see
    ChangeLog.

## LICENSE
    Copyrights 1995-2000 Graham Barr <<gbarr@pobox.com>> and 2001-2017 Mark Overmeer
    <<perl@overmeer.net>>.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
    Perl itself. See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>