Petr Kovar
pknbe@volny.cz 2014
MIME-types worden gebruikt om het formaat van een bestand te identificeren.
Nathan Follens
nfollens@gnome.org 2022.

# Wat zijn MIME-types?

In GNOME, MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) types are used to identify the format of a file. The GNOME Desktop uses MIME types to:

Determine which application should open a specific file format by default.

Register other applications that can also open a specific file format.

Provide a string describing the type of a file, for example, in a file properties dialog of the Files application.

Provide an icon representing a specific file format, for example, in a file properties dialog of the Files application.

De namen van MIME-types volgen een bepaald indeling:

    media-type/subtype-identifier

image/jpeg is an example of a MIME type where image is the media type, and jpeg is the subtype identifier.

GNOME follows the freedesktop.org Shared MIME Info specification to determine:

The machine-wide and user-specific location to store all MIME type specification files.

How to register a MIME type so that the desktop environment knows which applications can be used to open a specific file format.

How the user can change which applications should open what file formats.

# Wat is de MIME-database?

De MIME-database is een verzameling van alle MIME-typespecificatiebestanden die door Gnome gebruikt worden om informatie over bekende MIME-types op te slaan.

The most important part of the MIME database from the system administrator’s point of view is the /usr/share/mime/packages/ directory where the MIME type related files specifying information on known MIME types are stored. One example of such a file is /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml, specifying information about the standard MIME types available on the system by default. That file is provided by the shared-mime-info package.

# Meer informatie verkrijgen

For detailed information describing the MIME type system, see the freedesktop.org Shared MIME Info specification located at the freedesktop.org website:

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec/