source: node_modules/mime/README.md@ 65b6638

# mime

Comprehensive MIME type mapping API based on mime-db module.

## Install

Install with [npm](http://github.com/isaacs/npm):

    npm install mime

## Contributing / Testing

    npm run test

## Command Line

    mime [path_string]

E.g.

    > mime scripts/jquery.js
    application/javascript

## API - Queries

### mime.lookup(path)
Get the mime type associated with a file, if no mime type is found `application/octet-stream` is returned. Performs a case-insensitive lookup using the extension in `path` (the substring after the last '/' or '.').  E.g.

```js
var mime = require('mime');

mime.lookup('/path/to/file.txt');         // => 'text/plain'
mime.lookup('file.txt');                  // => 'text/plain'
mime.lookup('.TXT');                      // => 'text/plain'
mime.lookup('htm');                       // => 'text/html'
```

### mime.default_type
Sets the mime type returned when `mime.lookup` fails to find the extension searched for. (Default is `application/octet-stream`.)

### mime.extension(type)
Get the default extension for `type`

```js
mime.extension('text/html');                 // => 'html'
mime.extension('application/octet-stream');  // => 'bin'
```

### mime.charsets.lookup()

Map mime-type to charset

```js
mime.charsets.lookup('text/plain');        // => 'UTF-8'
```

(The logic for charset lookups is pretty rudimentary.  Feel free to suggest improvements.)

## API - Defining Custom Types

Custom type mappings can be added on a per-project basis via the following APIs.

### mime.define()

Add custom mime/extension mappings

```js
mime.define({
    'text/x-some-format': ['x-sf', 'x-sft', 'x-sfml'],
    'application/x-my-type': ['x-mt', 'x-mtt'],
    // etc ...
});

mime.lookup('x-sft');                 // => 'text/x-some-format'
```

The first entry in the extensions array is returned by `mime.extension()`. E.g.

```js
mime.extension('text/x-some-format'); // => 'x-sf'
```

### mime.load(filepath)

Load mappings from an Apache ".types" format file

```js
mime.load('./my_project.types');
```
The .types file format is simple -  See the `types` dir for examples.