File extensions

File extensions

Some file extensions

Lazarus

Project files

extension	description	help	format
.lpg	Lazarus Project Group file	Project Groups	XML
.lpk	Lazarus Package file (contains package-specific settings)	Lazarus Packages	XML
.lpi	Lazarus Project Information file (contains project-specific settings)		XML
.lps	Lazarus Project Session file	Project Options	XML
.lpr	Lazarus Program file, contains Pascal source of main program		pascal
.lfm	Lazarus Form file - contains all components and their properties. The source code of the form is located in the PAS-file of the same name.		text
.pas	Unit with Pascal code. It may also contain the code of form (stored in the LFM-file of the same name).		pascal
.pp	Pascal code		pascal
.inc	Include file. Contains a part of Pascal code that can be "included" in the program by the {$i} directive. Not to be confused with INC-files of other programming languages that use the same extension.	$include	pascal
.compiled	Compilation session for a project		XML
.ppu	Unit description file. Not to be confused with the compiled unit, which has the extension ".o"	[1]	binary
.o	Compiled unit. Is the result of compilation by FPC (Free Pascal) or any other compiler (e.g. GCC for C++).		binary
.or	Object resource, automatically generated from {$R} directive		binary
.a	(1) Compiled unit, code part for smartlinking (on some platforms) (2) Compiled code from other compilers (e.g. gcc) linked into a static library		binary
.lrs	Lazarus Resource file (this is a generated file; not to be confused with a Windows resource file)	Lazarus Resources	text
.lrt	Lazarus Resource string Table created when saving a LFM-file and i18n is enabled. It contains the TTranslateString properties of the LFM-file.
.rst	Resource String Table created by the compiler for every unit with a "resourcestring" section	Getting translation strings right	text
.rsj	Resource String table in JSON format created by FPC 2.7.1 for units with "resourcestring" section	Using resourcestrings, [2]	JSON
.rc	Resource script	Lazarus Resources	text
.res	Compiled resource	Lazarus Resources	binary
.ico	Icon (typically for a program)		ico
.gitignore	Ignore list of git		text

Subversion or Git

These files would normally be stored in a repository as an adequate description of a project:

*.lpi
*.lpr
*.lfm
*.pas
*.pp

These files might contain manually-generated or imported information, or might be regenerated by the IDE or build process. In general, if they have the same basename as the project or a form or unit they're IDE-generated, but in all cases should be reviewed individually:

*.inc
*.res
*.lrs
*.rc
*.ico

These files are regenerated by the IDE or by a build so do not need to be stored:

*.ppu
*.o
*.a
*.lps
*.or
*.rst
*.compiled

Note that *.lrj files are generated for every form while tracking i18n, loss of these files can cause missing translations.

There is an example .gitignore file at [3].

Delphi

Project files

*.dfm
   Delphi form module
*.dof
   Delphi project options file
*.dsk
   Desktop configuration

Converting Delphi projects

Lazarus can convert at least some Delphi project files into its own format.

Application

General

*.txt
   Text file
*.po
   Gettext Portable Object
*.bak
   Backup
*.cfg
   Config file
*.chm
   Compiled Help File - contains html. See also package chm
*.csv
   Comma Separated Values text file format 
*.exe
   Directly executable program
*.hlp
   Help file
*.ini
   Initialization file
*.odt
   OpenDocument text document
*.pdf
   Portable Document Format
*.ps
   PostScript 
*.rtf
   Rich Text Format text file

Image

*.png
   Portable network graphic
*.bmp
   bitmap 
*.ico
   icon 
*.xpm
   pixmap 
*.ppm
   portable pixmap 
*.pgm
   portable graymap 
*.pbm
   portable bitmap 
*.jpg
   compressed image format standardised by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)

XML

*.xml
*.dtd
*.xsd
*.xsl

Web

*.html
   Hypertext Markup Language
*.css
   Cascading style sheet

Archive

*.tar
   tape archive
*.zip
   a single file containing one or more compressed files

Database

*.dbf
   Database file
*.mdx
   Multiple index file

Spreadsheet

*.ods
   OpenOffice.org Calc spreadsheet File Format
*.xls  
   Microsoft Excel File Format
*.xlsx  
   Microsoft Office Open XML Excel File Format 

Operating system

Linux and Unix (excluding Darwin)

*.so 
   Shared object library
*.sh
   Shell script
*.deb
   Debian Package
*.rpm
   Red Hat Package Manager

Mac (Darwin)

*.app
   Application bundle (a structured directory)
*.dmg
   Disk Image File 
*.dylib 
   Dynamic shared library
*.framework
   Framework (set of interfaces or subframeworks)
*.icns
   Icon resource file containing one or more images used for an application icon 
*.plist
   Property list file (storage for serialised objects)

Windows

*.bat
   Batch file. It's a text file that contains a sequence of commands for a computer operating system.
*.dll 
  dynamic-link library
*.exe
   Directly executable program

See also

Alphabetical list of file extensions