What is MIME type "application/x-qemu-disk"?

A MIME type is a string that tells browsers and other tools how to handle a particular kind of file.

application/x-qemu-disk is a MIME type for disk image files managed by the QEMU emulator. It marks files that store virtual machine disk contents using a copy-on-write format.

This format is often found in virtual disk images like IMG, QCOW2, QCOW, and QCOW3. It is designed for efficient space usage and supports advanced operations.

• Disk Image Storage: It holds an entire virtual hard drive for a virtual machine.
• Copy-on-Write Support: This reduces storage consumption by only saving changed data.
• Snapshot Capability: It enables quick rollbacks by creating snapshots of a virtual disk's state.
• Advanced Features: It can incorporate compression and encryption mechanisms.

The MIME type is key for virtualization environments that need to manage disk images efficiently. For more details, visit QEMU's official site.

Associated file extensions

.img, .qcow2, .qcow, .qcow3

Usage Examples

HTTP Header

When serving content with this MIME type, set the Content-Type header:

    Content-Type: application/x-qemu-disk
  

HTML

In HTML, you can specify the MIME type in various elements:

    <a href="file.dat" type="application/x-qemu-disk">Download file</a>
  

Server-side (Node.js)

Setting the Content-Type header in Node.js:

    const http = require('http');
    
    http.createServer((req, res) => {
      res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-qemu-disk');
      res.end('Content here');
    }).listen(3000);
  

Associated file extensions

.img, .qcow2, .qcow, .qcow3