Re: linking binfmt_misc with mime-types

[Brian May <bam@snoopy.apana.org.au>]

>> In addition, the
>> kernel could be configured to assign default mime-types for different
>> file extensions, or something.
>
>You say a magic type database is a hack, and on the other hand file
>exetensions are a better indicator? Phew. Microsoft uses file extension
>(".tgz file" if it can't recognize). I think examining the content is a
>much better strategy.

This is one thing I didn't like myself.

The difficulty is when I create a new file, eg

vim myfile.html

(or just myfile).

what initialy mime type should be set? Perhaps the default should be no
mime type, which translates to a binary file. The user would manually
set the type as required. This is an extra step though, which currently
is only required for executable files, to set execute permission.

perhaps

vim --mimetype=text/html myfile.html

vim would check that text/html is a valid mime type, eg by inspecting
/etc/mime.types

As for Microsoft, do programs like Outlook even look at the mimetype? I
remember sending some people a "plain/text" mime type attachment, and
outlook got confused because it didn't recognise the file extension, and
forced the user to save the file to disk...
-- 
Brian May <bam@snoopy.apana.org.au>