On Sun, Jan 12, 2003 at 03:37:44PM +0000, Thomas Leonard wrote: > Hi everyone, > > I'm currently updating the freedesktop.org shared MIME database spec[1]. > I'd like to add a note about reading the MIME type from an extended > attribute, if the filesystem supports it, but I'm not sure what key to > use. 'mime', 'MIME-Type', and 'ContentType' have all been suggested. > > Does anyone here know if there's a canonical key name for this? Sorry if > this is the wrong place for such questions. > > [1] http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info.html > > PS: I'm not on the list, so please CC any replies. Thanks, I wonder why you even want to store mime types in a extended attribute at all? like the filename its really not a good place at all for this kind of information, its FAR to easy for it to become out of sync with reality (anyone who has ever used a MacOS system for any length of time can attest to how flawed a system of storing file type information in the filesystem really is). its akin to putting labels on drinking glasses, the glass, like a file, is merely a container, its contents can and will vary. Therefore the highest precedence should be given only to the file content, ie file(1) magic. I really don't see any compelling reason to waste filesystem space on putting mime-types in extended attributes, its not portable, and its not reliable. as this topic isn't very on topic to linux-xfs please many any replies off-list. -- Ethan Benson http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/
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