mb_output_handler/default_mimetype and mbstring.http_output_conv_mimetypes

Greetings, All. I'm trying (yet again) to get some automatic behavior, that is supposedly possible with certain options combination, but I can't seems to get the desired results. The core idea is to get automatic conversion from internal script encoding to he output encoding, which is quite easily achievable with mb_output_handler, but to also have a quick and clean way to escape transcoding without changing of such options. Now, looking over the available options (and their descriptions in the manual), I've cooked a config that looks as follows: Zend Multibyte Support => provided by mbstring default_charset => CP866 => CP866 default_mimetype => text/plain => text/plain input_encoding => CP866 => CP866 internal_encoding => UTF-8 => UTF-8 output_buffering => 0 => 0 output_encoding => CP866 => CP866 output_handler => mb_output_handler => mb_output_handler zend.script_encoding => no value => no value iconv.input_encoding => no value => no value iconv.internal_encoding => no value => no value iconv.output_encoding => no value => no value HTTP input encoding translation => disabled mbstring.detect_order => no value => no value mbstring.encoding_translation => Off => Off mbstring.func_overload => 0 => 0 mbstring.http_input => no value => no value mbstring.http_output => no value => no value mbstring.http_output_conv_mimetypes => ^(text/|application/xhtml\+xml) => ^(text/|application/xhtml\+xml) mbstring.internal_encoding => no value => no value mbstring.language => neutral => neutral mbstring.strict_detection => Off => Off mbstring.substitute_character => no value => no value Now, if I don't touch anything, PHP correctly convert srings printed by the script from UTF-8 (script encoding) into CP866 (terminal encoding). But no matter what I do to default_mimetype, no matter where I set it (INI, command line, script itself), the result doesn't change. The handler will ALWAYS translate the output. I'm beginning to doubt my understanding of mbstring.http_output_conv_mimetypes meaning and intention. This is using both CLI and CGI executables. Anyone can explain this to me? -- Sincerely Yours, Andrey Repin <anrdaemon@freemail.ru>