What do some common Unix file extensions mean?

Common Unix file extensions include:

`.asc`	ASCII (text) file, often containing ANSI codes
`.awk`	awk script
`.bak`	Backup copy of file
`.bz2`	`bzip2` compressed file
`.c`	C program source code
`.C`	C++ program source code
`.cc`	C++ program source code
`.cgi`	CGI web page program
`.dat`	Data or other information
`.doc`	Explanatory text file
`.dvi`	DVI format document, produced by TeX/LaTeX
`.el`	Emacs Lisp source code
`.elc`	Compiled Emacs Lisp program
`.f`	Fortran source code
`.f77`	Fortran source code (f77 compiler)
`.fig`	Xfig data file
`.for`	Fortran source code (fort compiler)
`.gif`	GIF image file
`.gz`	`gzip` compressed file
`.h`	C or C++ program header file
`.html`	Hypertext Markup Language document
`.info`	Emacs TeXinfo file in "info" format
`.jpg`	Graphical image file in JPEG format
`.log`	Logged information
`.m`	Maple file
`.mat`	Matlab script
`.me`	`nroff` input file for processing with `-me` option
`.mpg`	MPEG animation file
`.ms`	`nroff` input file for processing with `-ms` option
`.o`	Object code, produced by compilers
`.pal`	Xpaint palette file
`.pbm`	Portable bitmap
`.pgm`	Portable gray scale pixmap
`.pl`	Perl program
`.png`	PNG format graphics file (similar to GIF)
`.ppm`	Portable pixmap
`.ps`	PostScript format document
`.py`	Python program
`.rast`	Sun raster file
`.rgb`	SGI native image file
`.shar`	Shell archive (expand with `sh file.shar`)
`.ss`	Scheme source code
`.S`	Assembly (machine) code
`.tar`	Tape archive, used by tar command
`.tar.gz`	Tarred-then-gzipped files
`.tex`	TeX or LaTeX format document
`.tif`	TIFF (Adobe) image file
`.tgz`	Tarred-then-gzipped files (equivalent to `.tar.gz`)
`.txt`	Generic text file
`.uue`	uuencoded file
`.xbm`	X bitmap
`.z`	Packed file (from the `pack` command) or early `gzip` file
`.Z`	Compressed file, from `compress` command
`.zip`	Zipped (compressed) file, from `zip` command

Some others include:

`*~`	(File ending with ~ ) Emacs backup file
`#*#`	(File surrounded with #'s) Emacs autobackup file
`,*`	(File beginning with , ) MH removed message
`.*rc`	(File starting with a dot, ending with rc) configuration file

Lastly, files with an extension that is a number or a number plus a letter (e.g., cat.1, dbm.3b) are often manual page files, in runoff format.

At Indiana University, to get support for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems, see At IU, how do I get support for Linux or Unix?

Also see:

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Last modified on August 22, 2008.

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