suffixes(7) list of file suffixes

DESCRIPTION

It is customary to indicate the contents of a file with the file suffix, which consists of a period, followed by one or more letters. Many standard utilities, such as compilers, use this to recognize the type of file they are dealing with. The make(1) utility is driven by rules based on file suffix.

Following is a list of suffixes which are likely to be found on a Linux system.

SuffixFile type



 -
backup file

 .C
C++ source code, equivalent to .cc

 .F
Fortran source with cpp(1) directives
or file compressed using freeze

 .S
assembler source with cpp(1) directives

 .Y
file compressed using yabba

 .Z
file compressed using compress(1)

 .[0-9]+gf
TeX generic font files

 .[0-9]+pk
TeX packed font files

 .[1-9]
manual page for the corresponding section

 .[1-9][a-z]
manual page for section plus subsection

 .a
static object code library

 .ad
X application default resource file

 .ada
Ada source (may be body, spec, or combination)

 .adb
Ada body source

 .ads
Ada spec source

 .afm
PostScript font metrics

 .al
Perl autoload file

 .am
automake(1) input file

 .arc
arc(1) archive

 .arj
arj(1) archive

 .asc
PGP ASCII-armored data

 .asm
(GNU) assembler source file

 .au
Audio sound file

 .aux
LaTeX auxiliary file

 .avi
(msvideo) movie

 .awk
AWK language program

 .b
LILO boot loader image

 .bak
backup file

 .bash
bash(1) shell script

 .bb
basic block list data produced by
gcc -ftest-coverage

 .bbg
basic block graph data produced by
gcc -ftest-coverage

 .bbl
BibTeX output

 .bdf
X font file

 .bib
TeX bibliographic database, BibTeX input

 .bm
bitmap source

 .bmp
bitmap

 .bz2
file compressed using bzip2(1)

 .c
C source

 .cat
message catalog files

 .cc
C++ source

 .cf
configuration file

 .cfg
configuration file

 .cgi
WWW content generating script or program

 .cls
LaTeX Class definition

 .class
Java compiled byte-code

 .conf
configuration file

 .config
configuration file

 .cpp
equivalent to .cc

 .csh
csh(1) shell script

 .cxx
equivalent to .cc

 .dat
data file

 .deb
Debian software package

 .def
Modula-2 source for definition modules

 .def
other definition files

 .desc
initial part of mail message unpacked with
munpack(1)

 .diff
file differences (diff(1) command output)

 .dir
dbm data base directory file

 .doc
documentation file

 .dsc
Debian Source Control (source package)

 .dtx
LaTeX package source file

 .dvi
TeX's device independent output

 .el
Emacs-Lisp source

 .elc
compiled Emacs-Lisp source

 .eps
encapsulated PostScript

 .exp
Expect source code

 .f
Fortran source

 .f77
Fortran 77 source

 .f90
Fortran 90 source

 .fas
precompiled Common-Lisp

 .fi
Fortran include files

 .fig
FIG image file (used by xfig(1))

 .fmt
TeX format file

 .gif
Compuserve Graphics Image File format

 .gmo
GNU format message catalog

 .gsf
Ghostscript fonts

 .gz
file compressed using gzip(1)

 .h
C or C++ header files

 .help
help file

 .hf
equivalent to .help

 .hlp
equivalent to .help

 .htm
poor man's .html

 .html
HTML document used with the World Wide Web

 .hqx
7-bit encoded Macintosh file

 .i
C source after preprocessing

 .icon
bitmap source

 .idx
reference or datum-index file for hypertext
or database system

 .image
bitmap source

 .in
configuration template, especially for GNU Autoconf

 .info
files for the Emacs info browser

 .info-[0-9]+
split info files

 .ins
LaTeX package install file for docstrip

 .itcl
itcl source code;
itcl ([incr Tcl]) is an OO extension of tcl

 .java
a Java source file

 .jpeg
Joint Photographic Experts Group format

 .jpg
poor man's .jpeg

 .kmap
lyx(1) keymap

 .l
equivalent to .lex or .lisp

 .lex
lex(1) or flex(1) files

 .lha
lharc archive

 .lib
Common-Lisp library

 .lisp
Lisp source

 .ln
files for use with lint(1)

 .log
log file, in particular produced by TeX

 .lsm
Linux Software Map entry

 .lsp
Common-Lisp source

 .lzh
lharc archive

 .m
Objective-C source code

 .m4
m4(1) source

 .mac
macro files for various programs

 .man
manual page (usually source rather than formatted)

 .map
map files for various programs

 .me
Nroff source using the me macro package

 .mf
Metafont (font generator for TeX) source

 .mgp
MagicPoint file

 .mm
sources for groff(1) in mm - format

 .mo
Message catalog binary file

 .mod
Modula-2 source for implementation modules

 .mov
(quicktime) movie

 .mp
Metapost source

 .mp2
MPEG Layer 2 (audio) file

 .mp3
MPEG Layer 3 (audio) file

 .mpeg
movie file

 .o
object file

 .old
old or backup file

 .orig
backup (original) version of a file, from patch(1)

 .out
output file, often executable program (a.out)

 .p
Pascal source

 .pag
dbm data base data file

 .patch
file differences for patch(1)

 .pbm
portable bitmap format

 .pcf
X11 font files

 .pdf
Adobe Portable Data Format
(use Acrobat/acroread or xpdf)

 .perl
Perl source (see .ph, .pl and .pm)

 .pfa
PostScript font definition files, ASCII format

 .pfb
PostScript font definition files, binary format

 .pgm
portable greymap format

 .pgp
PGP binary data

 .ph
Perl header file

 .php
PHP program file

 .php3
PHP3 program file

 .pid
File to store daemon PID (e.g., crond.pid)

 .pl
TeX property list file or Perl library file

 .pm
Perl module

 .png
Portable Network Graphics file

 .po
Message catalog source

 .pod
perldoc(1) file

 .ppm
portable pixmap format

 .pr
bitmap source

 .ps
PostScript file

 .py
Python source

 .pyc
compiled python

 .qt
quicktime movie

 .r
RATFOR source (obsolete)

 .rej
patches that patch(1) couldn't apply

 .rpm
RPM software package

 .rtf
Rich Text Format file

 .rules
rules for something

 .s
assembler source

 .sa
stub libraries for a.out shared libraries

 .sc
sc(1) spreadsheet commands

 .scm
Scheme source code

 .sed
sed source file

 .sgml
SGML source file

 .sh
sh(1) scripts

 .shar
archive created by the shar(1) utility

 .so
Shared library or dynamically loadable object

 .sql
SQL source

 .sqml
SQML schema or query program

 .sty
LaTeX style files

 .sym
Modula-2 compiled definition modules

 .tar
archive created by the tar(1) utility

 .tar.Z
tar(1) archive compressed with compress(1)

 .tar.bz2
tar(1) archive compressed with bzip2(1)

 .tar.gz
tar(1) archive compressed with gzip(1)

 .taz
tar(1) archive compressed with compress(1)

 .tcl
tcl source code

 .tex
TeX or LaTeX source

 .texi
equivalent to .texinfo

 .texinfo
Texinfo documentation source

 .text
text file

 .tfm
TeX font metric file

 .tgz
tar archive compressed with gzip(1)

 .tif
poor man's .tiff

 .tiff
Tagged Image File Format

 .tk
tcl/tk script

 .tmp
temporary file

 .tmpl
template files

 .txt
equivalent to .text

 .uu
equivalent to .uue

 .uue
binary file encoded with uuencode(1)

 .vf
TeX virtual font file

 .vpl
TeX virtual property list file

 .w
Silvio Levi's CWEB

 .wav
wave sound file

 .web
Donald Knuth's WEB

 .wml
Source file for Web Meta Language

 .xbm
X11 bitmap source

 .xcf
GIMP graphic

 .xml
eXtended Markup Language file

 .xpm
X11 pixmap source

 .xs
Perl xsub file produced by h2xs

 .xsl
XSL stylesheet

 .y
yacc(1) or bison(1) (parser generator) files

 .z
File compressed using pack(1) (or an old gzip(1))

 .zip
zip(1) archive

 .zoo
zoo(1) archive

 ~
Emacs or patch(1) backup file

 rc
startup (`run control') file, e.g., .newsrc

CONFORMING TO

General UNIX conventions.

BUGS

This list is not exhaustive.

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 4.06 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.