(debian-policy.info)Registration of media type handlers with mailcap entries

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9.7.2 Registration of media type handlers with mailcap entries
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Packages that are not using desktop entries for registration should
install a file in mailcap(5) format (RFC 1524) in the directory
‘/usr/lib/mime/packages/’.  The file name should be the binary package’s
name.

The mime-support package provides the ‘update-mime’ program, which
integrates these registrations in the ‘/etc/mailcap’ file, using dpkg
triggers.  (1)

Packages installing desktop entries should not install mailcap entries
for the same program, because the mime-support package already reads
desktop entries.

Packages using these facilities `should not' depend on, recommend, or
suggest ‘mime-support’.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) Creating, modifying or removing a file in
‘/usr/lib/mime/packages/’ using maintainer scripts will not activate the
trigger.  In that case, it can be done by calling ‘dpkg-trigger
--no-await /usr/lib/mime/packages’ from the maintainer script after
creating, modifying, or removing the file.