NAME

       LWP::MediaTypes - guess media type for a file or a URL

SYNOPSIS

        use LWP::MediaTypes qw(guess_media_type);
        $type = guess_media_type("/tmp/foo.gif");

DESCRIPTION

       This module provides functions for handling media (also known as MIME) types and
       encodings.  The mapping from file extensions to media types is defined by the media.types
       file.  If the ~/.media.types file exists it is used instead.  For backwards compatibility
       we will also look for ~/.mime.types.

       The following functions are exported by default:

       guess_media_type( $filename )
       guess_media_type( $uri )
       guess_media_type( $filename_or_object, $header_to_modify )
           This function tries to guess media type and encoding for a file or objects that
           support the a "path" or "filename" method, eg, URI or File::Temp objects.  When an
           object does not support either method, it will be stringified to determine the
           filename.  It returns the content type, which is a string like "text/html".  In array
           context it also returns any content encodings applied (in the order used to encode the
           file).  You can pass a URI object reference, instead of the file name.

           If the type can not be deduced from looking at the file name, then guess_media_type()
           will let the "-T" Perl operator take a look.  If this works (and "-T" returns a TRUE
           value) then we return text/plain as the type, otherwise we return
           application/octet-stream as the type.

           The optional second argument should be a reference to a HTTP::Headers object or any
           object that implements the $obj->header method in a similar way.  When it is present
           the values of the 'Content-Type' and 'Content-Encoding' will be set for this header.

       media_suffix( $type, ... )
           This function will return all suffixes that can be used to denote the specified media
           type(s).  Wildcard types can be used.  In a scalar context it will return the first
           suffix found. Examples:

             @suffixes = media_suffix('image/*', 'audio/basic');
             $suffix = media_suffix('text/html');

       The following functions are only exported by explicit request:

       add_type( $type, @exts )
           Associate a list of file extensions with the given media type.  Example:

               add_type("x-world/x-vrml" => qw(wrl vrml));

       add_encoding( $type, @ext )
           Associate a list of file extensions with an encoding type.  Example:

            add_encoding("x-gzip" => "gz");

       read_media_types( @files )
           Parse media types files and add the type mappings found there.  Example:

               read_media_types("conf/mime.types");

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 1995-1999 Gisle Aas.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.