[thelist] PHP File Uploading, Macintosh, and Mime Types

Mike Migurski mike at saturn5.com
Tue Dec 10 16:53:01 CST 2002


>Among other information, I'm storing these files' mime types in a mysql
>database. Initially, I was grabbing the mime types from uploaded files
>from the $_FILES array ($_FILES[...]['type']), but I realized this wasn't
>going to work from files added in other ways. So instead I created a
>general function, return_mime_type($path), that uses the UNIX command
>"file -ib $path" to return the mime type of a local file. I figured this
>was the best way - a standard method of returning mime types on all files
>added into the asset management system.

why not use a multi-step approach?

1) use the _FILES array if it's available to you, since its info will
probably be the most reliable and available.

2) failing that, use the output of `file`

3) failing that, check the file extension and make an educated guess.
(this is what Apache does, anyway [I think])

4) failing that, store it as a generic file, or complain to the user that
more information is required.

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