Different computing systems have different file naming conventions; in particular, there are significant variations in the naming of files. Some systems, like the Apple Macintosh, permit arbitrary strings of characters, including blanks. Others, like MS DOS on the IBM PC and clones, limit names to two parts, a base name and an extension, or type, with the two separated by a period (dot, full stop).
File headers should therefore carry an indication of the original name of the file, and if the file is expected to be referenced by other files, then it is imperative that the name chosen be representable on a wide variety of, and preferably all, computing systems. Today, this in practice means the 8-character base name and 3-character file extension of MS DOS, which runs in tens of millions of personal computers.¸filenameportable subset There are still a few survivors of older operating systems with more stringent requirements on file names, but they are obsolete and rapidly disappearing.
The filename should be case insensitive ,¸filenamecase insensitivity and in the header, spelled in lower-case letters. It should start with a letter, and use only letters, digits, and perhaps, hyphens (minus signs) in the rest of the name, with no more than a single period in the name.¸filenamecharacters allowed in
This document's file header contains the attribute entry
%%% filename = "filehdr.ltx",
filehdr is an abbreviation for ``file header'', and ltx for ``LATEX'',¸LaTeX the name of the document formatting system that typesets this document.
keywords, supported, filename, Attribute descriptions