Preserves: Media Types and File Extensions

Tony Garnock-Jones tonyg@leastfixedpoint.com
February 2025. Version 0.996.1.

Preserves is a data model, with associated serialization formats. This document defines media types (also known as MIME types) for different representations of Preserves data.

Media Types

The Preserves data model has multiple different serialization formats. Each has its own media type. (These media types are unofficial: they are not yet registered with IANA.)

• application/preserves: Preserves data represented using the machine-oriented binary syntax

• text/preserves: Preserves data represented using the textual syntax

File extensions

• .pr: General-purpose Preserves data, represented using the textual syntax.

• .prb: General-purpose Preserves data, represented using the machine-oriented binary syntax.

  • Often used for the output of schema compilation; sometimes, .bin is seen in this role; prefer .prb.

• .prs: Preserves textual syntax representing a schema document.