### 3.15 mimeview ¶

For each file given in its command line, `mimeview` attempts to autodetect its type and invoke an appropriate file viewer.

To detect the file type, `mimeview` uses `mime.types` file. This file is a part of Common UNIX Printing System, mime.types in mime.types man page. By default `mimeview` searches for `mime.types` in `$prefix/etc/cups/`5, however its exact location can be specified at runtime as well (see `--mimetypes` below).

Once file MIME type is successfully determined, `mimeview` consults `mailcap` files in order to determine how to display the file. It does so essentially in the same manner as `metamail` utility, i.e., it scans all files specified in `METAMAIL` environment variable until it finds an entry describing the desired file format or until the list of files is exhausted. If `METAMAIL` variable is not set, `mimeview` uses the following default path instead:

    $HOME/.mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap:\
     /usr/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:\
     /etc/mail/mailcap:/usr/public/lib/mailcap

#### Footnotes

##### (5)

The exact location is determined at configuration time by setting environment variable `DEFAULT_CUPS_CONFDIR`. On most sites running

    ./configure DEFAULT_CUPS_CONFDIR=/etc/cups

should be recommended.