Content type Filename extensions may be considered a type of metadata. They are commonly used to imply information about the way data might be stored in the file. The exact definition, giving the criteria for deciding what part of the file name is its extension, belongs to the rules of the specific file system used; usually the extension is the substring which follows the last occurrence, if any, of the dot character (example: txt is the extension of the filename readme.txt, and html the extension of index.html). On file systems of some mainframe systems such as CMS in VM, VMS, and of PC systems such as CP/M and derivative systems such as MS-DOS, the extension is a separate namespace from the filename. Under Microsoft's DOS and Windows, extensions such as EXE, COM or BAT indicate that a file is a program executable. In OS/360 and successors, the part of the dataset name following the last period, called the low level qualifier, is treated as an extension by some software, e.g., TSO EDIT, but it has no special significance to the operating system itself; the same applies to Unix files in MVS.
Content type Filename extensions may be considered a type of metadata. They are commonly used to imply information about the way data might be stored in the file. The exact definition, giving the criteria for deciding what part of the file name is its extension, belongs to the rules of the specific file system used; usually the extension is the substring which follows the last occurrence, if any, of the dot character (example: txt is the extension of the filename readmetxt, and html the extension of index.html). On file systems of some mainframe systems such as CMS in VM, VMS, and of PC systems such as CP/M and derivative systems such as MS-DOS, the extension is a separate namespace from the filename. Under Microsoft's DOS and Windows, extensions such as EXE, COM or BAT indicate that a file is a program executable. In OS/360 and successors, the part of the dataset name following the last period, called the low level qualifier, is treated as an extension by some software, e.g., TSO EDIT, but it has no special significance to the operating system itself; the same applies to Unix files in MVS.