Talk:List of file formats

OGM

"OGM is a shell, which enables any form of compression to be used"
Shouldn't it be container not shell? Xorx77 19:02, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, on a related note, .ogg should be in here somewhere. It normally contains Ogg Vorbis files but could contain all types of media. --Twinxor 19:46, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

MAR

What about *.mar? ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-trunk/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.118.159.34 (talk) 13:26, 26 June 2005

It's already listed in the longer list, Alphabetical_list_of_file_extensions#M, and since end-users will rarely, if ever, have to handle .mar files directly (the software update service downloads, applies, and removes them - I think?) it probably shouldn't be on a list of popular formats. (Moz ref - Software_Update:MAR) --Georgeryp 13:43, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Sorting

I suggest we sort the categories of file formats.
Also when one adds an entry one should list alphabetically.
--Numa 02:53, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Clearly this has been done since Nov 2005--I just wonder now whether we oughten't further sort the page into MEDIA FORMATS, TEXT FORMATS, PROGRAMMING FORMATS, and SYSTEM FORMATS. Or maybe make a new Wikipedia page called Media Formats that deals with audio and video file extensions.

--Edtech2020 16:14, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

[[DCU]], [[DSH]], [[FEF]],

Presentation

I think this info could be presented much more neatly in the form of tables. There could be column headings for file extension, file format, primary application (if applicable), and comments. Something like so:

Extension	File Format	Primary Application	Notes
.doc	Word document	Microsoft Word	Also used as a plain text extension by some applications
.ged	GEDCOM file	N/A	Interchangeable file format used between genealogy programs

Someone more familiar with tables could probably do it a bit better-looking with colour coding and such like but you get the idea. Suggestions? Zunaid 10:13, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Several file formats have multiple extensions. What then, huh??? (Probably just put the most common ones in the cell, separated by commas.)--Jack Schitt 00:54, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Yup. I've put all the presentation stuff into "Presentation", so that it's all together and easier to find; that means that the discussion of that issue is below here, and the conclusion appears to be to have a comma-separated list of extensions. Guy Harris 01:33, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

More than one entry in the table could have the same extension, and an entry in the table can have more than one extension (e.g., both a.out and ELF would include ".so" as one of the possible extensions, along with ".o", although it should also list "none" as a possible extension).

I.e., something such as

Extensions	File Format	Primary Application	Notes
none, .so, .o	a.out	Unix executable code	Also used for object files and shared objects
none, .so, .o	ELF	Unix executable code	Also used for object files, shared objects, and core dumps

or, alternatively, have separate entries for each extension:

Extension	File Format	Primary Application	Notes
none	a.out	Unix executable code
.so	a.out	Unix shared objects
.o	a.out	Unix object files
none	ELF	Unix executable code	Also used for core dumps
.so	ELF	Unix shared objects
.o	ELF	Unix object files

I'm not sure which of those is preferable. Guy Harris 21:48, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

• I agree with you, the file format is the more fundamental concept. I lean towards the first representation. If there are very many extensions it could always be made multi-line rather than going too far horizontally. Next q, how do we sort them? I suggest alphabetically by format (rather than by extension) within each sub-section. Zunaid 08:17, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Another variant of the first representation would be

Extensions	File Format	Primary Applications	Notes
none, .so, .o	a.out	Unix executable code, object files and shared objects
none, .so, .o	ELF	Unix executable code, object files, shared objects, and core dumps

with all of them treated as primary.

I agree that we should sort them by format, as that's the fundamental concept. Guy Harris 09:03, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

• I'm not the expert on UNIX, but if all three can genuinely be considered the "primary" use of that extension then they all belong under that heading. However your first table looks and reads much better, so if there's a chance of only selecting one primary application I would go for that. Two other things, if we're gonna sort by format, then the format column should be first followed by the extension. Also, IMHO it would be clearer to the reader if "none" were italicized as none, with the other valid extensions being in plain text (i.e. remove any confusion that the extension might be .none). Using the first table as an example, it would then look like so:

File Format	Extensions	Primary Application	Notes
a.out	none, .so, .o	Unix executable code	Also used for object files and shared objects
ELF	none, .so, .o	Unix executable code	Also used for object files, shared objects, and core dumps

Okay, just one more point. At the moment the sub-sections are listed in what seems to be quite arbitrary order. I suggest we sort them by popularity/commonality of usage. So e.g. the video, graphics and audio formats would be right at the top, followed by the wordpro/spreadsheet stuff. The last of the "common" stuff would probably be the programming languages. The specialist stuff like CAD, accounting and other packages should be nearer the bottom, allowing the casual reader to glance over the main things without having to wade through things they might not have heard of. Zunaid 11:43, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

---

can we reopen this organization discussion? This needs something! WarBaCoN 05:31, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

.lnk

I want to create an article for lnk at Lnk (computing) and add lnk to the list here, but I don't know what category it should go under. Thanks. -- 201.78.233.162 16:12, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

If you're referring to the Windows "shortcut" files, then, of the current categories, the correct one would be "Other". You could, I guess, define a new category for those types of files, but the only other file format I know of that would fit into that category would be Mac OS alias files - Unix symbolic links are sort of similar, but they don't have a special file format; they have a special file system type, but the contents are just a text string containing a relative or absolute pathname of the target file.

Also, I'm not sure "Lnk" would be the right name for the page; I'd be tempted to call it "Shortcut" or something such as that, but there's already a Computer shortcut page for that, so you really would, at most, want to make Lnk (computing) redirect to Computer shortcut. Guy Harris 09:27, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

.SOL .torrent

Should .SOL be added? I don't know that much about it, but it should be there, right? 68.110.194.13 15:42, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

.torrent anybody?

MP3

MP3 is listed under Lossy Audio and Other Audio, which doesn't make sense to me. Is there a reason for this, or could someone more knowledgeable than me fix it? Rktur 00:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm a sound engineer, yes MP3 is a lossy format, so i see no reason to move it. Unless you mean remove from other? In which case, sure, go ahead and leave it just in the 'lossy' section. silvarbullet1 (talk) 00:02, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

.wmv

.wmv isn't on the page. I don't feel I know enough to add it. 72.66.108.13 02:41, 19 February 2007 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza

It is there, under ASF. --Mcoder 02:50, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

I just taught a class on file formats and needed to refer to WMV, so I added it to this list. Even if it is under ASF, it also belongs on our list of video format extensions. Edtech2020 15:40, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Spurious Extensions

ACP -- VA - Virtual Architecture

Does *.ACP for VA - Virtual Architecture belong on this list? Tricad added it on the 4^th, but it doesn't seem all that notable to me.-- Mumia-w-18 19:33, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Aren't lists a policy no-no?

Surely this list is better found, searched, maintained, by the many sites online that are dedicated to this type of directory listing. --Mespinola (talk) 18:34, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

This is about as far removed from a disambiguation page as a reverse dictionary is from a standard one. It's fine.Nektig (talk) 14:10, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

WP:DIRECTORY

JS

Isn't JS for both JavaScript and JScript? --Stefán Örvarr Sigmundsson (talk) 04:13, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

.pdm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.pdm

is orphaned (sp?) and could be listed here, but i don't know under which category. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Silvarbullet1 (talk • contribs) 23:53, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Proposal of massive merge

Talk:Windows file types for details. —Nethac DIU (¿?), wuz heer about 01:04, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Style

Most entries take the form "EXTENSION – Description". Per MOS:DASH one style of dash should be used throughout an article. In this article, various styles were used. I have corrected the article to use one style of dash. From the acceptable alternatives, I chose spaced en dashes. I made this choice after observing that most entries used a spaced dash style, which is a good choice. It prevents confusion about where the file extension—which may contain punctuation characters—ends.

There is still work to do on entries which did not have a dash at all, but need one. MetaEd (talk) 16:06, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Now, if an entry has a description, it is separated from the file type or extension by a spaced en dash.

I could use a second pair of eyes to go over the entries and see what I missed. MetaEd (talk) 16:41, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

mpo ?

Nintendo's 3D file format taken by the Nintendo 3DS handheld console is missing. I guess it is called .mpo ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.114.62.71 (talk) 10:52, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

External links

I've removed the external links from the article. Wikipedia is not a web directory. The entries should referenced, but the list shouldn't be a pile of external links. -- Whpq (talk) 03:13, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Please add .001 file format

Please add .001 file format. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.64.59.160 (talk) 03:53, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Suggestion to add .MZF =

I'm not certain how standard or well-established they are but I figured it might be worth considering adding this format:

.MZF - Sharp MZ-series computer files

Mostly used for emulators, etc. (original data is most likely sill on Cassette, Disk or in the MZ-800's case QuickDisk)

While I think it is based or somehow abstracted from .wav's (as much of them are originally Cassette tape data) - you should be able to find out some info from: http://www.sharpmz.org/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by ForgeAus (talk • contribs) 07:10, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

Duplication

Does this page not what appears at List of file formats (alphabetical)? Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 00:16, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

GMD

In my opinion the GameMaker formats should be removed or trimmed down, several of them are from the 1990's and virtually no files exist in the format, nor is their a published spec anywhere online. The formats also fail WP:Notability per WP:GNG and contain very little information that is available either in literature or the internet. BlitzGreg (talk) 12:23, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Hm, you might have a point there. Should all formats listed have a related article already? - David Gerard (talk) 15:16, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

TXT

"TXT – ASCII nebo Unicode plaintext Text file" What does the word "nebo" mean? Czech for "or"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.93.175.244 (talk) 06:31, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Request for a link to the Risc OS file format page

could a link from this page be made to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RISC_OS_filetypes as the infomation os valid for this subject but simply being compiled on this other page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.1.51.78 (talk) 21:54, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

F4F

chunked MP4, missing — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:62A:4:2E01:340A:F05D:4E37:4FE1 (talk) 18:17, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

Merger proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Request received to merge articles: List of file formats and List of filename extensions; dated: August 2016. Discussion here. Richard3120 (talk) 20:02, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

The articles seem to cover similar territory. Peter Flass (talk) 02:49, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Similar, but note that not all file formats necessarily have a single extension, and not all files of a given format necessarily have an extension at all:

   $ file /bin/cat
   /bin/cat: Mach-O 64-bit x86_64 executable

and you'll get similar answers on other Unix-like systems, with the only difference being whether it's Mach-O or a.out or ELF or COFF or....

Yes, files in those formats might have the extension .o if they're object files or .so/.dylib/etc. if they're shared libraries or dynamically-loaded modules, but they might also have no extension at all if they're executable images. Guy Harris (talk) 03:11, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

The articles are similar, but have some fundamentally different aspects. This article groups extensions/names by type whereas the other article lists the extensions alphabetically. I believe that both should stay as separate articles. Michael Golrick (talk) 15:49, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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this article is missing a file format

this file format is the .pk7 file which is another file for the doom engine. This file type is very rare so I have not been able to figure out quite what it does, but I am lead to believe that it is for 3d actors (the objects for the game) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.213.224.106 (talk) 20:34, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

Language files - .lang

I can find no trace on WP about this - there are at least an MS list - just meaningless numbers, and supposedly an ISO list - good if they could be cross-referenced based on the ISO.

Debugging would be much easier if these were included in whatever end result of the mentioned suggested future merge of the several pages I found here. 60.242.247.177 (talk) 09:50, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

Is .rbxl a file format? Mark.mysterious (talk) 23:43, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

"Biological data" listed at Redirects for discussion

A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Biological data. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 December 10#Biological data until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. User:力 (powera, π, ν) 22:51, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

missing stuff

there is no appimage, flatpakref, etc — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.65.220.245 (talk) 16:41, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

Missing extension : .reg

I am a little surprised to find out that the .reg extension is not listed there , because I think it is quite a famous extension . It is used by the Windows Registry . 116.42.193.140 (talk) 02:53, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

.yni

What is the listed .yni format? It just says "a configuration file similar to YAML" but there is no other mention (i could find) on all of wikipedia of this. Schockocraft (talk) 15:11, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

missing files

this article is missing.appinstaller and .gmd2 gmd2 is a file made with gdshare CheesyChase (talk) 03:34, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Non-notable will be removed

Since Wikipedia isn't an indiscriminate list of information, any entries that don't have their own article or aren't connected to software that is notable should be removed. I'll be working on this. --ZimZalaBim ^talk 17:08, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

rewrite

it seems as though the article needs a rewrite. the categories are all over the place (why is there a category for lemonos with one entry), and file formats do not seem to be in the right position a lot of the time. the descriptions for each file format are often confusing or not really standard + lacking links, and it includes incredibly specific file formats with literally no information about them. Howrued (talk) 20:09, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

also theres List of filename extensions which was shot down for a merger proposal, but seems to cover almost the exact same territory. most filename extensions correspond to a file format in some way shape or form Howrued (talk) 20:25, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

.clp

Missing .clp, for the Windows clipboard data. Tuvalkin (talk) 23:43, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Consistency in Presentation of Extensions

I would like to propose that the standards of the presentation of these file format extensions be changed, because currently the extensions listed at the start of the page aren't consistent. We need to make a decision as to whether the extensions include periods at the start or not (.PNG vs PNG), and so far due to the prevailing lack of them it is probably best to universally omit them. We should also decide on what to do with the case of the letters in the extensions, because I feel that when some are all-uppercase and others are all-lowercase it reduces the homogeneity of the page, and since most have been going with all-uppercase it may be best to apply that to all single-case extensions. Despite this, I do think that when an extension has an official mixed-case representation that we should use that. The People's Internet (talk) 23:48, 3 October 2024 (UTC)