[users@httpd] default mime.types does not contain "gz" - any reason why not?

[Boyle Owen <Ow...@swx.com>]

Greetings,

I have just realised that the default version of mime.types which comes with apache distros 1.3 & 2.0 does not contain an extension for the type "application/x-gzip". This means that if you have a file on your site like download.tar.gz, it will be served with "Content-type: application/x-tar" (I guess apache falls back to the .tar when it can't find anything for .gz).

This is not a problem for a unix machine, it just saves the file as download.tar.gz and then you can gunzip it as normal. However, on a Windows platform, the combination of the two dots in the filename and the misleading mime-type causes the OS to save the file as "download.tar.tar". Thus it can't be recognised by WinZip et al.

[Let's leave aside, for the moment, the issue of why would want to download a tar.gz on a Windows machine :-]

The simple fix is to assign "application/x-gzip" the extension "gz" in mime.types. Then the file is served with "Content-type: application/x-gzip", windows can save the file without munging the name and WinZip is happy. 

Is this simply an omission or is anyone aware of any reason why application/x-gzip should not be assigned an extension?

Rgds,
Owen Boyle
Disclaimer: Any disclaimer attached to this message may be ignored. 

PS - I checked the apache download sites and they send the correct mime-type for httpd-2.2.0.tar.gz, for example. Does this mean that the apache site webmaster must have had to edit his own mime.types? If so, he might've committed the change to the distro too.... :-)

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Re: [users@httpd] default mime.types does not contain "gz" - any reason why not?

[Nick Kew <ni...@webthing.com>]

On Friday 10 February 2006 12:31, httpd2@karsites.net wrote:
> Users are not really supposed to edit the mime.types file
> directly. I think this is what the AddType directive is for.

Broadly speaking, yes.

> # AddType allows you to add to or override the MIME configuration
> # file mime.types for specific file types.
> AddType application/x-compress .Z
> AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz
> AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
> AddType application/x-httpd-php .hml
> AddType application/x-httpd-php .htm
> AddType application/x-httpd-php .html
> AddType application/x-httpd-php .js

All of those would be badly wrong.  Compress and gzip are encodings;
PHP is a handler.  None of them is a type.

-- 
Nick Kew

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Re: [users@httpd] default mime.types does not contain "gz" - any reason why not?

[ht...@karsites.net]

Users are not really supposed to edit the mime.types file 
directly. I think this is what the AddType directive is for.

The Apache webmaster may have edited the mime.types file.
Most likely, he/she has just added the following directive 
to httpd.conf.

# AddType allows you to add to or override the MIME configuration
# file mime.types for specific file types.
AddType application/x-compress .Z
AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php .hml
AddType application/x-httpd-php .htm
AddType application/x-httpd-php .html
AddType application/x-httpd-php .js

Keith

In theory, theory and practice are the same;
In practice they are not. 

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006, Boyle Owen wrote:

> To: Apache list <us...@httpd.apache.org> From: Boyle Owen 
> <Ow...@swx.com> Subject: [users@httpd] default 
> mime.types does not contain "gz" - any reason
>     why not?
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> I have just realised that the default version of 
> mime.types which comes with apache distros 1.3 & 2.0 does 
> not contain an extension for the type 
> "application/x-gzip". This means that if you have a file 
> on your site like download.tar.gz, it will be served with 
> "Content-type: application/x-tar" (I guess apache falls 
> back to the .tar when it can't find anything for .gz).
> 
> This is not a problem for a unix machine, it just saves the file as download.tar.gz and then you can gunzip it as normal. However, on a Windows platform, the combination of the two dots in the filename and the misleading mime-type causes the OS to save the file as "download.tar.tar". Thus it can't be recognised by WinZip et al.
> 
> [Let's leave aside, for the moment, the issue of why would 
> want to download a tar.gz on a Windows machine :-]
> 
> The simple fix is to assign "application/x-gzip" the 
> extension "gz" in mime.types. Then the file is served with 
> "Content-type: application/x-gzip", windows can save the 
> file without munging the name and WinZip is happy.
> 
> Is this simply an omission or is anyone aware of any 
> reason why application/x-gzip should not be assigned an 
> extension?
> 
> Rgds,
> Owen Boyle
> Disclaimer: Any disclaimer attached to this message may be ignored. 
> 
> PS - I checked the apache download sites and they send the 
> correct mime-type for httpd-2.2.0.tar.gz, for example. 
> Does this mean that the apache site webmaster must have 
> had to edit his own mime.types? If so, he might've 
> committed the change to the distro too.... :-)

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Re: [users@httpd] default mime.types does not contain "gz" - any reason why not?

[Joshua Slive <jo...@slive.ca>]

On 2/10/06, Boyle Owen <Ow...@swx.com> wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I have just realised that the default version of mime.types which comes with apache distros 1.3 & 2.0 does not contain an extension for the type "application/x-gzip". This means that if you have a file on your site like download.tar.gz, it will be served with "Content-type: application/x-tar" (I guess apache falls back to the .tar when it can't find anything for .gz).

To expand slightly on what nick said, this is not defined in
mime.types because in many situations you want .gz to represent a
content-encoding rather than a content type.  Whether windows browsers
will deal with that correctly is a whole other story.  But it is left
for AddEncoding/AddType in httpd.conf to give users the option.

Joshua.

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