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<div class="section" id="module-mailcap">
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<span id="mailcap-mailcap-file-handling"></span><h1>19.3. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-mailcap" title="mailcap: Mailcap file handling."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mailcap</span></code></a> — Mailcap file handling<a class="headerlink" href="#module-mailcap" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
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<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="reference external" href="https://hg.python.org/cpython/file/3.5/Lib/mailcap.py">Lib/mailcap.py</a></p>
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<hr class="docutils" />
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<p>Mailcap files are used to configure how MIME-aware applications such as mail
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readers and Web browsers react to files with different MIME types. (The name
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“mailcap” is derived from the phrase “mail capability”.) For example, a mailcap
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file might contain a line like <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">video/mpeg;</span> <span class="pre">xmpeg</span> <span class="pre">%s</span></code>. Then, if the user
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encounters an email message or Web document with the MIME type
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<em class="mimetype">video/mpeg</em>, <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%s</span></code> will be replaced by a filename (usually one
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belonging to a temporary file) and the <strong class="program">xmpeg</strong> program can be
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automatically started to view the file.</p>
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<p>The mailcap format is documented in <span class="target" id="index-0"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1524.html"><strong>RFC 1524</strong></a>, “A User Agent Configuration
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Mechanism For Multimedia Mail Format Information,” but is not an Internet
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standard. However, mailcap files are supported on most Unix systems.</p>
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<dt id="mailcap.findmatch">
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<code class="descclassname">mailcap.</code><code class="descname">findmatch</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>caps</em>, <em>MIMEtype</em>, <em>key='view'</em>, <em>filename='/dev/null'</em>, <em>plist=[]</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#mailcap.findmatch" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
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<dd><p>Return a 2-tuple; the first element is a string containing the command line to
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be executed (which can be passed to <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.system" title="os.system"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.system()</span></code></a>), and the second element
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is the mailcap entry for a given MIME type. If no matching MIME type can be
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found, <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(None,</span> <span class="pre">None)</span></code> is returned.</p>
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<p><em>key</em> is the name of the field desired, which represents the type of activity to
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be performed; the default value is ‘view’, since in the most common case you
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simply want to view the body of the MIME-typed data. Other possible values
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might be ‘compose’ and ‘edit’, if you wanted to create a new body of the given
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MIME type or alter the existing body data. See <span class="target" id="index-1"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1524.html"><strong>RFC 1524</strong></a> for a complete list
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<p><em>filename</em> is the filename to be substituted for <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%s</span></code> in the command line; the
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default value is <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'/dev/null'</span></code> which is almost certainly not what you want, so
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usually you’ll override it by specifying a filename.</p>
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<p><em>plist</em> can be a list containing named parameters; the default value is simply
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an empty list. Each entry in the list must be a string containing the parameter
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name, an equals sign (<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'='</span></code>), and the parameter’s value. Mailcap entries can
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contain named parameters like <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%{foo}</span></code>, which will be replaced by the value
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of the parameter named ‘foo’. For example, if the command line <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">showpartial</span>
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<span class="pre">%{id}</span> <span class="pre">%{number}</span> <span class="pre">%{total}</span></code> was in a mailcap file, and <em>plist</em> was set to
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<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">['id=1',</span> <span class="pre">'number=2',</span> <span class="pre">'total=3']</span></code>, the resulting command line would be
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<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'showpartial</span> <span class="pre">1</span> <span class="pre">2</span> <span class="pre">3'</span></code>.</p>
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<p>In a mailcap file, the “test” field can optionally be specified to test some
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external condition (such as the machine architecture, or the window system in
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use) to determine whether or not the mailcap line applies. <a class="reference internal" href="#mailcap.findmatch" title="mailcap.findmatch"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">findmatch()</span></code></a>
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will automatically check such conditions and skip the entry if the check fails.</p>
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<dl class="function">
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<dt id="mailcap.getcaps">
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<code class="descclassname">mailcap.</code><code class="descname">getcaps</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#mailcap.getcaps" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
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<dd><p>Returns a dictionary mapping MIME types to a list of mailcap file entries. This
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dictionary must be passed to the <a class="reference internal" href="#mailcap.findmatch" title="mailcap.findmatch"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">findmatch()</span></code></a> function. An entry is stored
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as a list of dictionaries, but it shouldn’t be necessary to know the details of
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this representation.</p>
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<p>The information is derived from all of the mailcap files found on the system.
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Settings in the user’s mailcap file <code class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">$HOME/.mailcap</span></code> will override
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settings in the system mailcap files <code class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">/etc/mailcap</span></code>,
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<code class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/etc/mailcap</span></code>, and <code class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/local/etc/mailcap</span></code>.</p>
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<p>An example usage:</p>
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<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailcap</span>
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<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">d</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">mailcap</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getcaps</span><span class="p">()</span>
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<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">mailcap</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">findmatch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">d</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'video/mpeg'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">filename</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'tmp1223'</span><span class="p">)</span>
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<span class="go">('xmpeg tmp1223', {'view': 'xmpeg %s'})</span>
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