MAILCAP.ORDER(5) Order Mailcap Entries MAILCAP.ORDER(5)
NAME
/etc/mailcap.order - the mailcap ordering specifications
DESCRIPTION
The order of entries in the /etc/mailcap file can be altered by editing
the /etc/mailcap.order file. Each line of that file specifies a package
and an optional mime type. Mailcap entries that match will be placed in
the order of this file. Entries that don't match will be placed later.
Example
mime-support:*/*
gv:application/postscript
netscape:text/html
less:text/*
emacs:text/*
The above would make any entries provided by the mime-support package
(as found in the /usr/lib/mime/packages directory) take priority over
everything else. The gv package will be used over anything else when it
comes to postscript documents. Netscape will be used for any html docu-
ments and less will be used for any remaining text documents. However,
since neither netscape or less provide for editing documents, any edit
or compose actions will fall through to the emacs rules.
After modifying this file, be sure to run /usr/sbin/update-mime (as
root) to propagate the changes into the /etc/mailcap file.
Remember that this files takes package names and not executable names.
If you want to define rules that reference specific programs, the best
way is to include them in ~/.mailcap or the user section of the
/etc/mailcap file.
LIMITATIONS
There is currently no way to break out a certain type from a wildcard
rule. If, for example, both xv and gimp were to specify "image/*"
rules, it isn't possible to use xv for gif images but use gimp for jpeg
images.
Also, I would like to add the ability to specify certain actions in the
rules. For example, if netscape were to have an edit rule but I wanted
to use emacs for editing/creating html documents, I could place a line
like
emacs:text/* action=edit|compose
before the netscape entry. The update-mime program would then spit out
entries such that netscape view rule comes before the emacs view rule
but have the netscape edit rule comes after the emacs edit rule.
SEE ALSO
mailcap(5) run-mailcap(1) update-mime(8)
AUTHOR
The mailcap.order specification was written by Brian White
<bcwhite@pobox.com>
Debian Project 16th Aug 1998 MAILCAP.ORDER(5)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 05:03:09 CET 2025.