This package contains: - The freedesktop.org shared MIME database spec. - The merged GNOME and KDE databases, in the new format. - The update-mime-database command, used to install new MIME data. To install: Do the usual: $ ./configure $ make $ make install If you want to install to your home directory, you should instead do: $ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/.local $ make $ make install You'll need to make sure that $HOME/.local/bin is in your PATH, of course. See http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/shared-mime-info-spec for more information. Please report bugs to the bugzilla, under the shared-mime-info product. http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/GettingInvolved Useful reference links: IANA: http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/ KDE's old mime-types: http://websvn.kde.org/branches/KDE/3.5/kdelibs/mimetypes/