75 lines
3.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
75 lines
3.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
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:mod:`mailcap` --- Mailcap file handling
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========================================
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.. module:: mailcap
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:synopsis: Mailcap file handling.
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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 ``video/mpeg; xmpeg %s``. Then, if the user
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encounters an email message or Web document with the MIME type
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:mimetype:`video/mpeg`, ``%s`` will be replaced by a filename (usually one
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belonging to a temporary file) and the :program:`xmpeg` program can be
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automatically started to view the file.
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The mailcap format is documented in :rfc:`1524`, "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.
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.. function:: findmatch(caps, MIMEtype[, key[, filename[, plist]]])
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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 :func:`os.system`), 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, ``(None, None)`` is returned.
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*key* 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 :rfc:`1524` for a complete list
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of these fields.
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*filename* is the filename to be substituted for ``%s`` in the command line; the
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default value is ``'/dev/null'`` which is almost certainly not what you want, so
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usually you'll override it by specifying a filename.
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*plist* 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 (``'='``), and the parameter's value. Mailcap entries can
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contain named parameters like ``%{foo}``, which will be replaced by the value
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of the parameter named 'foo'. For example, if the command line ``showpartial
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%{id} %{number} %{total}`` was in a mailcap file, and *plist* was set to
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``['id=1', 'number=2', 'total=3']``, the resulting command line would be
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``'showpartial 1 2 3'``.
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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. :func:`findmatch`
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will automatically check such conditions and skip the entry if the check fails.
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.. function:: getcaps()
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Returns a dictionary mapping MIME types to a list of mailcap file entries. This
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dictionary must be passed to the :func:`findmatch` 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.
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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 :file:`$HOME/.mailcap` will override
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settings in the system mailcap files :file:`/etc/mailcap`,
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:file:`/usr/etc/mailcap`, and :file:`/usr/local/etc/mailcap`.
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An example usage::
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>>> import mailcap
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>>> d=mailcap.getcaps()
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>>> mailcap.findmatch(d, 'video/mpeg', filename='/tmp/tmp1223')
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('xmpeg /tmp/tmp1223', {'view': 'xmpeg %s'})
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