Filename and Pathname Syntax

Syntax of Filenames

The Use of Dot in Program Source and Object Files

The language compilers on Unix make use of a dot in filenames in much the same way that VMS uses the dot to separate a file's name from it's type. For example:

• The C compiler expects its source files to have names ending .c
• The C++ compiler expects its source files to have names ending .cc or .C

Compilers produce assembly-language translations of the higher-level-language source with names ending in .s and produce object files with names ending .o.

Finally, the heading files used by the C-preprocessor have names ending in .h.

Remember, though, that .c, .cc, .p, etc. are not file types in the VMS sense, but simply the last two or three characters in the filename!