Edit File: mailcap.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>18.3. mailcap — Mailcap file handling — Python v2.6.6 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '2.6.6', COLLAPSE_MODINDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python v2.6.6 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python v2.6.6 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="18. 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Internet Data Handling</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-mailcap"> <h1>18.3. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">mailcap</span></tt> — Mailcap file handling<a class="headerlink" href="#module-mailcap" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p>Mailcap files are used to configure how MIME-aware applications such as mail readers and Web browsers react to files with different MIME types. (The name “mailcap” is derived from the phrase “mail capability”.) For example, a mailcap file might contain a line like <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">video/mpeg;</span> <span class="pre">xmpeg</span> <span class="pre">%s</span></tt>. Then, if the user encounters an email message or Web document with the MIME type <em>video/mpeg</em>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%s</span></tt> will be replaced by a filename (usually one belonging to a temporary file) and the <strong>xmpeg</strong> program can be automatically started to view the file.</p> <p>The mailcap format is documented in <span class="target" id="index-427"></span><a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1524.html"><strong>RFC 1524</strong></a>, “A User Agent Configuration Mechanism For Multimedia Mail Format Information,” but is not an Internet standard. However, mailcap files are supported on most Unix systems.</p> <dl class="function"> <dt id="mailcap.findmatch"> <tt class="descclassname">mailcap.</tt><tt class="descname">findmatch</tt><big>(</big><em>caps</em>, <em>MIMEtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>key</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>filename</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>plist</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#mailcap.findmatch" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a 2-tuple; the first element is a string containing the command line to be executed (which can be passed to <a title="os.system" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.system"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.system()</span></tt></a>), and the second element is the mailcap entry for a given MIME type. If no matching MIME type can be found, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(None,</span> <span class="pre">None)</span></tt> is returned.</p> <p><em>key</em> is the name of the field desired, which represents the type of activity to be performed; the default value is ‘view’, since in the most common case you simply want to view the body of the MIME-typed data. Other possible values might be ‘compose’ and ‘edit’, if you wanted to create a new body of the given MIME type or alter the existing body data. See <span class="target" id="index-428"></span><a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1524.html"><strong>RFC 1524</strong></a> for a complete list of these fields.</p> <p><em>filename</em> is the filename to be substituted for <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%s</span></tt> in the command line; the default value is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'/dev/null'</span></tt> which is almost certainly not what you want, so usually you’ll override it by specifying a filename.</p> <p><em>plist</em> can be a list containing named parameters; the default value is simply an empty list. Each entry in the list must be a string containing the parameter name, an equals sign (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'='</span></tt>), and the parameter’s value. Mailcap entries can contain named parameters like <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%{foo}</span></tt>, which will be replaced by the value of the parameter named ‘foo’. For example, if the command line <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">showpartial</span> <span class="pre">%{id}</span> <span class="pre">%{number}</span> <span class="pre">%{total}</span></tt> was in a mailcap file, and <em>plist</em> was set to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">['id=1',</span> <span class="pre">'number=2',</span> <span class="pre">'total=3']</span></tt>, the resulting command line would be <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'showpartial</span> <span class="pre">1</span> <span class="pre">2</span> <span class="pre">3'</span></tt>.</p> <p>In a mailcap file, the “test” field can optionally be specified to test some external condition (such as the machine architecture, or the window system in use) to determine whether or not the mailcap line applies. <a title="mailcap.findmatch" class="reference internal" href="#mailcap.findmatch"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">findmatch()</span></tt></a> will automatically check such conditions and skip the entry if the check fails.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="function"> <dt id="mailcap.getcaps"> <tt class="descclassname">mailcap.</tt><tt class="descname">getcaps</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#mailcap.getcaps" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Returns a dictionary mapping MIME types to a list of mailcap file entries. This dictionary must be passed to the <a title="mailcap.findmatch" class="reference internal" href="#mailcap.findmatch"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">findmatch()</span></tt></a> function. An entry is stored as a list of dictionaries, but it shouldn’t be necessary to know the details of this representation.</p> <p>The information is derived from all of the mailcap files found on the system. Settings in the user’s mailcap file <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">$HOME/.mailcap</span></tt> will override settings in the system mailcap files <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/etc/mailcap</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/etc/mailcap</span></tt>, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/local/etc/mailcap</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <p>An example usage:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailcap</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">d</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">mailcap</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getcaps</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mailcap</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">findmatch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">d</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'video/mpeg'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">filename</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'/tmp/tmp1223'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="go">('xmpeg /tmp/tmp1223', {'view': 'xmpeg %s'})</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="json.html" title="previous chapter">18.2. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">json</span></tt> — JSON encoder and decoder</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="mailbox.html" title="next chapter">18.4. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">mailbox</span></tt> — Manipulate mailboxes in various formats</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li><a href="../_sources/library/mailcap.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" size="18" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../modindex.html" title="Global Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="mailbox.html" title="18.4. mailbox — Manipulate mailboxes in various formats" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="json.html" title="18.2. json — JSON encoder and decoder" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="../index.html">Python v2.6.6 documentation</a> »</li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="netdata.html" >18. 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