The MIME Types configuration file determines how your Virtual Server's web server maps filename extensions to MIME types which are returned to the browser. Your browser then maps these MIME types to "helper" applications or in-line plug-ins. The mime.types configuration file is located in your ~/www/conf directory and can be modified to support any additional MIME type that you desire. Information about your MIME types configuration file is discussed in the following sections:

Default MIME Types

The default MIME type configuration file includes a definition of the most common known MIME types. The default MIME types file is located in your ~/www/conf directory which is the same location as your httpd.conf, srm.conf, and access.conf configuration files. If you need to add a MIME type that is not already listed in the default MIME types file, then you can easily add a new type by following the instructions provided below.

Adding a New MIME Type

There are two ways in which you can add a new MIME type to your default MIME types configuration file. You can either connect to your Virtual Server using Telnet and edit the file directly on your Virtual Server (using pico, emacs, vi, or any other UNIX text editor) or you can download the file to your local machine using an FTP client, edit the file, and then upload the modified MIME types file back to your Virtual Server.

Your MIME types file is located in the same directory as your other web server configuration files, namely in your ~/www/conf directory. Here you will find your httpd.conf, srm.conf, and access.conf files as well as the mime.types file. Before you edit your mime.types file (or upload a new copy), you may want to make a backup copy of the configuration file. You can do this easily by connecting to your Virtual Server using Telnet, making your ~/www/conf directory the current working directory (i.e. type cd ~/www/conf), and run the following command:

cp mime.types mime.types.bak

Making backups of files before you modify them is always a good idea.

The format of the MIME types configuration file is pretty simple. Lines beginning with a "#" are comment lines, i.e. they are ignored by the web server. Each MIME type line consists of:

type/subtype       extension1 extension2 ... extensionN

where "type/subtype" is the MIME type of the document whose filename ends with one of the extensions listed. The extension list can include any number of space separated filename extensions. Examples of MIME type entries can be found in the default MIME types file included with your Virtual Server setup.

If you decide to download your MIME types file using an FTP client, you should note that your MIME types file is an ASCII file and as such should be transferred (both downloaded and uploaded) in ASCII format not BINARY. Uploading your MIME types file in BINARY format may cause your web server to not function normally and in some cases, cease to function. Therefore, care should be taken in this regard. Most popular FTP clients allow you to select the file transfer mode.