Shared MIME Info

The shared-mime-info package contains:

• The core database of common MIME types, their file extensions and icon names.
• The update-mime-database command, used to extend the DB and install a new MIME data.
• The freedesktop.org shared MIME database spec.

It is used by GLib, GNOME, KDE, XFCE and many others.

For more information about the database see the Shared MIME Info Specification here.

Installation

To install do:

$ meson _build -Dprefix=/usr
$ ninja -v -C _build install

Configuration and requirements

We use meson with the default ninja backend. Run meson configure to show a full list of project options.

• If -Dbuild-spec is enabled (the default), building also requires xmlto and the DocBook XSL stylesheet distribution.

• -Dbuild-tools and -Dbuild-tests, are both enabled by default. These require that the GLib development package for your system is installed, as well as gettext.

• Building and running the test suite additionally requires xmllint from libxml2's utilities.

On Debian-like systems, these dependencies and helper utilities can be installed like so:

$ sudo apt install libxml2-utils xmlto
$ sudo apt install libglib2.0-dev gettext

Contributing

You can contribute by reporting bugs, requesting and implementing new MIME types, or by translating the database's strings into your language. See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

• Please report bugs here:
  https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/shared-mime-info/issues

• How to get involved in freedesktop.org projects:
  https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/GettingInvolved/

Useful reference links

• IANA:
  https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/

• KDE's old mime-types:
  http://websvn.kde.org/branches/KDE/3.5/kdelibs/mimetypes/

• UNIX file tool and libmagic:
  https://github.com/file/file