For those who like to see something, rather than reading (dull and) lengthly description: an example can be found further below.
Following a general description of the file format.
Format
File name and extension
The first line of the file consists of an identifier string.
Makes it possible to uniquely identify the file format during parsing.
Separated by an empty line from the remaining file.
Should contain a version number (of the format).
Field names
Values
Values always follow a field name
Within a block, all values get intended that way that they are left-aligned. Therefore, the longest field name defines the indentation.
Values may contain special characters
4) and colons.
NEW Values may span several lines. In this case, each new line needs to start with a whitespace character (such as space or tab).
Use of colons
Colons are used to separate field names and values
At all other places (e.g., after a block heading) no colon is allowed. Only exception are values.
Colons are used internally during parsing to separate field names and values (in Matlab: regexp
with option split
).
The info file is divided into several blocks.
All field names and descriptions within the file should be in English to guarantee international usability.
Blocks and fields may be optional, as long as there are certain fields (acting as „switches“) that can be used while parsing to determine whether these blocks/fields exist in the file.
Is no value available for a field, but removing the field seems not reasonable
5), the value is „N/A“.
About the blocks:
Each block starts with a heading (block name) in capital letters.
Each block gets separated from the previous part of the file by an empty line.
Blocks contain key-value pairs consisting of a field name, followed by its respective value.