CGI form enctype values

jck has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

print start_form({ -action  => "$thisscript",
      -enctype => "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
      -method  => "post" });
[download]

is giving me this HTML result:

<form method="post" action="ti_login.pl" enctype="multipart/form-data"
+ enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
[download]

Why two enctype values?
I thought the default was "application/x-www-form-urlencoded", but if i leave off the enctype specification, i get "multipart/form-data" - Why??

for the most part, i really like using CGI.pm, but i'm confused...please help me understand. TIA

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Re: CGI form enctype values by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 13, 2006 at 17:03 UTC
It's related to If XHTML is activated (the default), then forms will be automatically created using [the `multipart/form-data`] encoding. Specifically, it doesn't ignore your `-enctype => "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"` as it should. Having CGI emit HTML instead of XHTML would allow you to use `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`. Make sure the MIME type returned by the web server matches the markup language you are using.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re: CGI form enctype values
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 13, 2006 at 17:03 UTC

It's related to

If XHTML is activated (the default), then forms will be automatically created using [the multipart/form-data] encoding.

Specifically, it doesn't ignore your -enctype => "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" as it should.

Having CGI emit HTML instead of XHTML would allow you to use application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Make sure the MIME type returned by the web server matches the markup language you are using.

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