Re: [media-types] Mime type for patch files?

[Eric Prud'hommeaux <[e-mail]>]

* Petter Reinholdtsen <[e-mail]> [2018-10-31 06:23+0100]
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am new to this list, and hope I do not misunderstand its purpose.  I
> would like to suggest a "new" mime type, and hope for your input on the
> topic.
> 
> While testing a archive system on a subset of mails from the Debian
> archive, I noticed the following unregistered MIME types on the top ten
> list of MIME types used in the emails: text/x-patch and text/x-diff.
> 
> The fact that emailing patches as attachments is so popular make me
> suspect it is time to register a MIME type for it.  But what type should
> the suggested?  One of the above, or a new one without the x- prefix?

I think this negotiation must happen with the tool maintainers which
currently recognize text/x-{patch,diff}. Given that that's probably
impossible, the answer is almost certainly that you are stuck with
"x-". Thanks for picking this up.

I tried to answer your question but ended up puzzled by this text in
[RFC6838]:
[[
   Note that types with names beginning with "x-" are no longer
   considered to be members of this tree (see [RFC6648]).  Also note
   that if a generally useful and widely deployed type incorrectly ends
   up with an "x-" name prefix, it MAY be registered using its current
   name in an alternative tree by following the procedure defined in
   Appendix A.
]]

The only "x-" subtree in [IMT] is "x-www-form-urlencoded", and maybe
it's an exception. The tricky question is whether x-{diff,patch}
deserve the same exception. On one hand, we don't want a slippery
slope of exceptions, on the other hand, the tree's job is to document
current or achievable reality.


[RFC6838] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6838#section-3.4
[IMT] https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml#application

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