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SUFFIXES

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (7)
Updated: 2017-09-15
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NAME

suffixes - 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.

Suffix	File 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 4.13 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/.