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+#+TITLE: OpenBSD httpd MIME Types
+#+DATE: 2020-08-15T01:49:22-04:00
+#+DRAFT: true
+#+DESCRIPTION: How to get OpenBSD httpd to return the proper MIME types for files
+#+TAGS[]: openbsd httpd
+#+KEYWORDS[]: openbsd httpd
+#+SLUG:
+#+SUMMARY:
+
+#+ATTR_HTML: :title OpenBSD httpd MIME type recognition
+#+ATTR_HTML: :alt OpenBSD httpd MIME type recognition
+[[file:cover.png]]
+
+On openbsd's httpd, there are only a select few mime types that are
+recognized by default. according to [[https://man.openbsd.org/httpd.conf.5][=httpd.conf(5)=]], those types are:
+=ext/css=, =text/html=, =text/plain=, =image/gif=, =image/png=,
+=image/jpeg=, =image/svg+xml=, and
+=application/javascript=. everything else is said to be of type
+=application/octet-stream= by default.
+
+this is ok for most static hosting situations, but can be challenging
+for some common attachment types. for example, i recently made a blog
+post that had an attached pdf. normally web browsers open pdf files in
+the browser's pdf viewer, but since it was being returned with the
+mime-type =application/octet-stream=, the browser decided to download
+it instead of openning it directly. this isn't a tragedy, but it can
+be annoying and interrupt the flow of the user's experience.
+
+the solution to this is to include the =application/pdf= mime type in
+the [[https://man.openbsd.org/httpd.conf.5#types][=types=]] block in your =httpd.conf=. there are two ways to go about
+this. either by manually defining the type you require, or including
+the system's built-in mime type database.
+
+using the first method you would include a types block that defines
+all of the mime types you require. this types block can go anywhere
+outside of a server declaration.
+
+the types are defined in the format of =type/subtype name [name ...]=
+
+#+begin_src
+types {
+    text/css                css
+    text/html               html htm
+    text/plain              txt
+    image/gif               gif
+    image/jpeg              jpeg jpg
+    image/png               png
+    application/javascript  js
+    application/pdf         pdf
+}
+#+end_src
+
+the second method, including the system's built-in mime types
+database, is simpler if you need to support proper mime types for a
+larger number of files, and don't want to go through the process of
+writing them all in by hand. this is done by defining a similar types
+block, but instead of writing in type data, you us the [[https://man.openbsd.org/httpd.conf.5#include][=include=]]
+directive. openbsd's mime type definitions are stored in
+=/usr/share/misc/mime.types=.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC
+types {
+    include "/usr/share/misc/mime.types"
+}
+#+END_SRC
+
+After editing the configuration file, all you have to do is reload
+httpd, and it should begin recognizing file types properly.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC shell
+doas rcctl reload httpd
+#+END_SRC