logoalt Hacker News

allendoerferyesterday at 11:13 AM2 repliesview on HN

What about file extensions?


Replies

georgyoyesterday at 11:46 AM

File extensions are just a hint about what the file might be and have nothing to do with what the file actually is. If the server sets the MIME type, the browser will use that as the hint.

But even beyond that, most file formats have a bit of a header at the start of the file that declares the actual format of the file. Browsers already can understand that and use the correct render for a file without an extension.

jdiffyesterday at 11:44 AM

Sometimes respected, largely ignored. URLs very often don't map directly to files served.