More About MIME

MIME is evolving. New content subtypes are being added. The documents in this section may be out of date by the time you see them.

As of this writing, the best place to start is the regularly updated MIME FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list. You can get it by reading the comp.mail.mime or news.answers Usenet newsgroups. It's available from these (and other) anonymous FTP archives:

If you can't read Usenet, and if you don't have an Internet connection, you can get the FAQ by mail server. To do that, send a message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with these lines in the body:

    size 0
    send /usenet/comp.mail.mime/*

The size 0 command tells the server not to split long messages into parts; if the messages you get seem to be truncated, re-send your request with a command like size 30000 to make messages no more than 30,000 characters long. To get help from the mail server, send a message to the above address; in the body, put the single word help.

The source for information on MIME is the set of Internet RFC (Request for Comment) documents. The version of MIME covered in this book is described by RFC 1521. RFC 1521 has been replaced by RFC 2045 and other MIME RFCs. If you want to see the latest information, there are links from the Reference List. You really should get a copy; see the Sections RFCs and Internet Drafts and the Reference List.

The Usenet newsgroup comp.mail.mime (as well as the mailing list info-mime, if you can't read Usenet) discuss MIME. For instructions about joining the mailing list, see the latest FAQ.

Information about how MH handles MIME is at appropriate places all through the book. The major sections are:

Using MIME is an introductory "tour" to using MIME under MH.
Reading MIME Messages explains how to read MIME messages.
Listing MIME Message Parts shows how to get a summary of MIME message contents.
Overview: Sending MH Messages has bits and pieces of MIME information sprinkled through it.
MIME Fields in a Header lists the fields in a MIME message header.
Building MIME Drafts and Recovering MIME Drafts are about processing MIME message drafts.
Composing and Sending MIME Messages has overall information; Replying to Messages with MIME and Forwarding in MIME Format have specific tips about replying and forwarding messages in MIME format.
Sending Files; Using mhmail and viamail introduces viamail, a program for sending files in a special MIME format that MH handles well.
Decoding and Storing MIME Messages tells how to decode and store MIME message contents.
You can break apart MIME-format message digests with burst, in the Section Bursting Messages.
An MH Profile, in General has a section about the MH profile file and shows MIME entries; MIME Configuration has detailed explanation and tutorials on customizing MH support for MIME.

Also see your online MH manual pages, especially mhn(1) -- or the nmh pages mhbuild(1), mhlist(1), mhshow(1), and mhstore(1).

A good book about electronic mail and MIME, written by the person who did most of the work on MH's MIME support, is The Internet Message by Marshall T. Rose. (See the Reference List.)