Linux/Unix naming conventions...

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

Yes.
Unix file names are simply a name. There are several conventions:
First, if the filename starts with a dot, then that file is considered 
hidden, and will not show up in the ls command unless you use the -a 
option. That is why, when you do an ls or ls -l, the .profile, .cshrc, 
.bashrc, .emacs, .forward files don't get listed.

Secondly, the file extensions do have meaining. In the development world:
.cc - C language sources
.cpp - C language files that have been preprocessed by the cpp command.
.c++, .C, .CC - Normally C++ source files.
.f - Fortran files.
.o - object files (output from compilers)
.s - assembly language files.
a.out - an executable program if not otherwise specified. 
There are more. The Make command has built-in rules based on these 
conventions. Most compilers know about these. For instance,
cc x.c - will compile the C program x.c
cc x.C - should treat the program as a c++ program. 
cc x.f - should treat as fortran. 
cc x.o - will treat the file as an object file and invoke the linkage 
editor.

.tar - normally tar archives.
.Z - compressed files
.gz - compressed using gzip. 
.jpeg, .gif obvious.

Most programs don't care what the extension is, but some make assumptions, 
sich as the make command which looks for a file called makefile. If not 
found it looks for Makefile. These are only conventions and are not 
enforced by Unix or Linux. Executable files in Unix systems can be binary 
executable files or they can be text files (shell scripts), or other script 
files.


"Kevin M. Gleason" wrote:
> Are there any naming conventions in the Linux/Unix world? DOS was easy,
> 8.3 (1-8 chars DOT 3 character extension) but Linux? What, if any, are
> the restrictions in regard to MIME extensions?
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org


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