LWP::MediaTypes(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation LWP::MediaTypes(3)

# [NAME](#NAME)

LWP::MediaTypes - guess media type for a file or a URL

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
 use LWP::MediaTypes qw(guess_media_type);
 $type = guess_media_type("/tmp/foo.gif");
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

This module provides functions for handling media (also known as MIME) types and encodings. The mapping from file extensions to media types is defined by the *media.types* file. If the *~/.media.types* file exists it is used instead. For backwards compatibility we will also look for *~/.mime.types*.

The following functions are exported by default:

[guess\_media\_type( $filename )](#guess_media_type%28)

[guess\_media\_type( $uri )](#guess_media_type%28~2)

[guess\_media\_type( $filename\_or\_object, $header\_to\_modify )](#guess_media_type%28~3)

This function tries to guess media type and encoding for a file or objects that support the a "path" or "filename" method, eg, URI or File::Temp objects. When an object does not support either method, it will be stringified to determine the filename. It returns the content type, which is a string like "text/html". In array context it also returns any content encodings applied (in the order used to encode the file). You can pass a URI object reference, instead of the file name.

If the type can not be deduced from looking at the file name, then **guess\_media\_type()** will let the "-T" Perl operator take a look. If this works (and "-T" returns a TRUE value) then we return *text/plain* as the type, otherwise we return *application/octet-stream* as the type.

The optional second argument should be a reference to a HTTP::Headers object or any object that implements the $obj->header method in a similar way. When it is present the values of the 'Content-Type' and 'Content-Encoding' will be set for this header.

[media\_suffix( $type, ... )](#media_suffix%28)

This function will return all suffixes that can be used to denote the specified media type(s). Wildcard types can be used. In a scalar context it will return the first suffix found. Examples:

```
  @suffixes = media_suffix('image/*', 'audio/basic');
  $suffix = media_suffix('text/html');
    
```

The following functions are only exported by explicit request:

[add\_type( $type, @exts )](#add_type%28)

Associate a list of file extensions with the given media type. Example:

```
    add_type("x-world/x-vrml" => qw(wrl vrml));
    
```

[add\_encoding( $type, @ext )](#add_encoding%28)

Associate a list of file extensions with an encoding type. Example:

```
 add_encoding("x-gzip" => "gz");
    
```

[read\_media\_types( @files )](#read_media_types%28)

Parse media types files and add the type mappings found there. Example:

```
    read_media_types("conf/mime.types");
    
```

# [COPYRIGHT](#COPYRIGHT)

Copyright 1995-1999 Gisle Aas.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

2026-10-26 perl v5.44.0

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Document: LWP::MediaTypes(3pm) from perl-lwp-mediatypes 6.05-r2 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/libwww-perl/LWP-MediaTypes