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Concept
Configuration file
Summary
In computing, configuration files (commonly known simply as config files) are s used to configure the parameters and initial settings for some computer programs. They are used for user applications, server processes and operating system settings.
Some applications provide tools to create, modify, and verify the syntax of their configuration files; these sometimes have graphical interfaces. For other programs, system administrators may be expected to create and modify files by hand using a text editor, which is possible because many are human-editable plain text files. For server processes and operating-system settings, there is often no standard tool, but operating systems may provide their own graphical interfaces such as YaST or debconf.
Some computer programs only read their configuration files at startup. Others periodically check the configuration files for changes. Users can instruct some programs to re-read the configuration files and apply the changes to the current process, or indeed to read arbitrary files as a configuration file. There are no definitive standards or strong conventions.
Across Unix-like operating systems many different configuration-file formats exist, with each application or service potentially having a unique format, but there is a strong tradition of them being in human-editable plain text, and a simple key–value pair format is common. Filename extensions of .cnf, .conf, .cfg, .cf or .ini are often used.
Almost all formats allow comments, in which case, individual settings can be disabled by prepending with the comment character. Often the default configuration files contain extensive internal documentation in the form of comments and s are also typically used to document the format and options available.
System-wide software often uses configuration files stored in /etc, while user applications often use a "" – a file or directory in the home directory prefixed with a period, which from casual listing. Since this causes pollution, newer user applications generally make their own folder in the .
Official source
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