=encoding utf8

=head1 NAME

MIME::Types - Definition of MIME types

=head1 INHERITANCE

 MIME::Types
   is a Exporter

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 use MIME::Types;
 my $mimetypes = MIME::Types->new(...);      # MIME::Types object
 my $type = $mimetypes->type('text/plain');  # MIME::Type  object
 my $type = $mimetypes->mimeTypeOf('gif');

=head1 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.

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 B<all IANA> types
and the knowledge of Apache.  Probably the most complete table on
the net!

=head2 MIME::Types 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->new;

Later, each time you create this object (you may, of course, also reuse
the object you create here) you will get access to B<the same global table>
of types.

=head1 METHODS

=head2 Constructors

=over 4

=item MIME::Types-E<gt>B<new>(OPTIONS)

Create a new C<MIME::Types> 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          <installed source>
  only_complete    <false>
  only_iana        <false>
  skip_extensions  <false>

=over 2

=item db_file => FILENAME

=item 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 (C<new>) determines whether you get the full or the partial
information.

=item only_iana => BOOLEAN

Only load the types which are currently known by IANA.

=item skip_extensions => BOOLEAN

Do not load the table to map extensions to types, which is quite large.

=back

=back

=head2 Knowledge

=over 4

=item $obj-E<gt>B<addType>(TYPE, ...)

Add one or more TYPEs to the set of known types.  Each TYPE is a
C<MIME::Type> which must be experimental: either the main-type or
the sub-type must start with C<x->.

Please inform the maintainer of this module when registered types
are missing.  Before version MIME::Types 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...

=item $obj-E<gt>B<extensions>()

Returns a list of all defined extensions.

=item $obj-E<gt>B<listTypes>()

Returns a list of all defined mime-types by name only.  This will B<not>
instantiate L<MIME::Type|MIME::Type> objects.  See L<types()|MIME::Types/"Knowledge">

=item $obj-E<gt>B<mimeTypeOf>(FILENAME)

Returns the C<MIME::Type> object which belongs to the FILENAME (or simply
its filename extension) or C<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->new;
 my $mime = $types->mimeTypeOf('gif');

 my $mime = $types->mimeTypeOf('jpg');
 print $mime->isBinary;

=item $obj-E<gt>B<type>(STRING)

Returns the C<MIME::Type> 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 C<MIME::Type> object to be defined.  In scalar
context, only the first is returned.

=item $obj-E<gt>B<types>()

Returns a list of all defined mime-types.  For reasons of backwards
compatibility, this will instantiate L<MIME::Type|MIME::Type> objects, which will
be returned.  See L<listTypes()|MIME::Types/"Knowledge">.

=back

=head1 FUNCTIONS

The next functions are provided for backward compatibility with MIME::Types
versions [0.06] and below.  This code originates from Jeff Okamoto
F<okamoto@corp.hp.com> and others.

=over 4

=item B<by_mediatype>(TYPE)

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.

=item B<by_suffix>(FILENAME|SUFFIX)

Like C<mimeTypeOf>, but does not return an C<MIME::Type> 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 'by_suffix';
 my ($mediatype, $encoding) = by_suffix('image.gif');

 my $refdata = by_suffix('image.gif');
 my ($mediatype, $encoding) = @$refdata;

=item B<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 C<MIME::Types> 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.

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

This module is part of MIME-Types distribution version 2.04,
built on September 12, 2013. Website: F<http://perl.overmeer.net/mimetypes/>

=head1 LICENSE

Copyrights 1999,2001-2013 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 F<http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>

