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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: ARIN Policy on IP-based Web Hosting
Andrew Brown wrote: > > the mime type is made up, usually based on the file's extension, which > is, of course, passed along with the contents of the file when you > transfer it. it's no extra information in this context. Depends on the server. On systems that have OS-level file typing (like MacOS - where a filename has no relationship whatsoever to file type), the MIME type should be derived from the OS-level file-type. On systems that don't have OS-level file typing, and don't rely heavily on file extensions (like UNIX), it would make sense for the server to base a MIME type on something more than just the filename - perhaps involving the file's content - similar to what the file(1) command does. On systems where a file's name (extension, prefix, whatever) is the primary means for determining a file's type (like Windows), it may make sense for the server to base the MIME type on the name alone. Of course, there are (and probably always will be) broken servers for all systems. -- David
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