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<title>12.3 mailcap -- Mailcap file handling.</title>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0014300000000000000000">
12.3 <tt class="module">mailcap</tt> --
         Mailcap file handling.</A>
</H1>
<A NAME="module-mailcap"></A>
<P>

<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="samp">video/mpeg; xmpeg %s</tt>".  Then, if the user encounters an email
message or Web document with the MIME type <span class="mimetype">video/mpeg</span>,
"<tt class="samp">%s</tt>" will be replaced by a filename (usually one belonging to a
temporary file) and the <b class="program">xmpeg</b> program can be automatically
started to view the file.

<P>
The mailcap format is documented in <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-91011' xml:id='rfcref-91011'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1524.html">RFC 1524</a>, ``A User Agent
Configuration Mechanism For Multimedia Mail Format Information,'' but
is not an Internet standard.  However, mailcap files are supported on
most <span class="Unix">Unix</span> systems.

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3961' xml:id='l2h-3961' class="function">findmatch</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>caps, MIMEtype</var><big>[</big><var>, key</var><big>[</big><var>,
                            filename</var><big>[</big><var>, plist</var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return a 2-tuple; the first element is a string containing the command
line to be executed
(which can be passed to <tt class="function">os.system()</tt>), and the second element is
the mailcap entry for a given MIME type.  If no matching MIME
type can be found, <code>(None, None)</code> is returned.

<P>
<var>key</var> 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 <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-91013' xml:id='rfcref-91013'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1524.html">RFC 1524</a> for a complete list of these
fields.

<P>
<var>filename</var> is the filename to be substituted for "<tt class="samp">%s</tt>" in the
command line; the default value is
<code>'/dev/null'</code> which is almost certainly not what you want, so
usually you'll override it by specifying a filename.

<P>
<var>plist</var> 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="character">=</tt>"),
and the parameter's value.  Mailcap entries can contain
named parameters like <code>%{foo}</code>, which will be replaced by the
value of the parameter named 'foo'.  For example, if the command line
"<tt class="samp">showpartial %{id} %{number} %{total}</tt>"was in a mailcap file, and <var>plist</var> was set to <code>['id=1',
'number=2', 'total=3']</code>, the resulting command line would be
<code>'showpartial 1 2 3'</code>.

<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.  <tt class="function">findmatch()</tt> will automatically check such
conditions and skip the entry if the check fails.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3962' xml:id='l2h-3962' class="function">getcaps</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Returns a dictionary mapping MIME types to a list of mailcap file
entries. This dictionary must be passed to the <tt class="function">findmatch()</tt>
function.  An entry is stored as a list of dictionaries, but it
shouldn't be necessary to know the details of this representation.

<P>
The information is derived from all of the mailcap files found on the
system. Settings in the user's mailcap file <span class="file">$HOME/.mailcap</span>
will override settings in the system mailcap files
<span class="file">/etc/mailcap</span>, <span class="file">/usr/etc/mailcap</span>, and
<span class="file">/usr/local/etc/mailcap</span>.
</dl>

<P>
An example usage:
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
&gt;&gt;&gt; import mailcap
&gt;&gt;&gt; d=mailcap.getcaps()
&gt;&gt;&gt; mailcap.findmatch(d, 'video/mpeg', filename='/tmp/tmp1223')
('xmpeg /tmp/tmp1223', {'view': 'xmpeg %s'})
</pre></div>

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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span>
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