read /usr/share/mutt/mailcap as fallback by default. This allows to set some useful defaults specifically for mutt. For example text/html Index: mutt-1.5.21/init.c =================================================================== --- init.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) --- init.c +++ init.c 2019-01-02 13:25:20.795634552 +0000 @@ -3717,7 +3717,7 @@ void mutt_init (int skip_sys_rc, LIST *c else { /* Default search path from RFC1524 */ - MailcapPath = safe_strdup ("~/.mailcap:" PKGDATADIR "/mailcap:" SYSCONFDIR "/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap"); + MailcapPath = safe_strdup ("~/.mailcap:" PKGDATADIR "/mailcap:" SYSCONFDIR "/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap:" SYSCONFDIR "/mutt/mailcap"); } Tempdir = safe_strdup ((p = getenv ("TMPDIR")) ? p : "/tmp");