OK, try this on for size:
Index: mod_mime.html =================================================================== RCS file: /home/cvs/httpd-2.0/docs/manual/mod/mod_mime.html,v retrieving revision 1.44 diff -u -r1.44 mod_mime.html --- mod_mime.html 2001/08/22 02:22:46 1.44 +++ mod_mime.html 2001/08/25 03:22:07 @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" - LINK="#0000FF" + link="#0000FF" vlink="#000080" alink="#FF0000" > @@ -118,7 +118,76 @@ the "imap-file" handler will be used, and so it will be treated as a mod_imap imagemap file. +<h2><a name="contentencoding">Content encoding</a></h2> +A file of a particular MIME type can additionally be encoded a +particular way to simplify transmission over the Internet. While this +usually will refer to compression, such as <samp>gzip</samp>, it can +also refer to encryption, such a <samp>pgp</samp> or +to an encoding such as UUencoding, which is designed for transmitting +a binary file in an ASCII (text) format.<p> + +The MIME RFC puts it this way: +<blockquote> +The Content-Encoding entity-header field is used as a modifier to the +media-type. When present, its value indicates what additional content +coding has been applied to the resource, and thus what decoding mechanism +must be applied in order to obtain the media-type referenced by the +Content-Type header field. The Content-Encoding is primarily used to allow +a document to be compressed without losing the identity of its underlying +media type. +</blockquote> + +By using more than one file extension (see +<a href="#multipleext">section above about multiple file +extensions</a>), you can indicate that a file is of a particular +<em>type</em>, and also has a particular <em>encoding</em>.<p> + +For example, you may have a file which is a Microsoft Word document, +which is pkzipped to reduce its size. If the <samp>.doc</samp> extension is +associated with the Microsoft Word file type, and the +<samp>.zip</samp> extension is associated with the pkzip file +encoding, then the file <samp>Resume.doc.zip</samp>would be known to +be a pkzip'ed Word document.<p> + +Apache send a <samp>Content-encoding</samp> header with the resource, +in order to tell the client browser about the encoding method. +<p> +<samp>Content-encoding: pkzip</samp> +<p> +<h2>Character sets and languages</h2> + +Finally, in addition to file type, and the file encoding, +another important piece of information is +what language a particular document is in, and in what character set +the file should be displayed. For example, the document might be +written in the Vietnamese alphabet, or in Cyrillic, and should be +displayed as such. This information, also, is transmitted in MIME +headers.<p> + +While the character set is useful for the browser, in order to +determine how to display the document, the language and the +character set are also used in the process of content negotiation +(See <a href="mod_negotiation.html">mod_negotiation</a>) +to determine which document to give to the client, when there are +alternative documents in more than one language, or more than +one character set.<p> + +To convey this further information, Apache optionally sends a +<samp>Content-Language</samp> header, to specify the language that the +document is in, and can append additional information onto the +<samp>Content-Type</samp> header to indicate the particular character +set that should be used to correctly render the information. + +<pre> +Content-Language: en, fr +Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-2 +</pre> +<p> +The language specification is the two-letter abbreviation for the +language. The <samp>charset</samp> is the name of the particular +character set which should be used. + <hr> <h2><a name="addcharset">AddCharset</a> directive</h2> @@ -556,7 +625,7 @@ <code></Files></code></dd> </DL> <P> -This will cause <code>foo.gz</code> to mark as being encoded with the +This will cause <code>foo.gz</code> to be marked as being encoded with the gzip method, but <code>foo.gz.asc</code> as an unencoded plaintext file. </P> <p> --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]