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### 4.12 mailcap

The `~/.mailcap` file is parsed by most MIME-aware message handlers and describes how elements are supposed to be displayed. Here’s an example file:

    image/*; gimp -8 %s
    audio/wav; wavplayer %s
    application/msword; catdoc %s ; copiousoutput ; nametemplate=%s.doc

This says that all image files should be displayed with `gimp`, that WAVE audio files should be played by `wavplayer`, and that MS-WORD files should be inlined by `catdoc`.

The `mailcap` library parses this file, and provides functions for matching types.

`mailcap-mime-data`

  This variable is an alist of alists containing backup viewing rules.

Interface functions:

`mailcap-parse-mailcaps`

  Parse the `~/.mailcap` file.

`mailcap-mime-info`

  Takes a MIME type as its argument and returns the matching viewer.