Editing Configuration file (section)

==File format==

In general, a config file can have any [[File format|format]]. The format that applies to a particular system is determined by the design of that system. Often, a standardized format is used since it allows for using tools designed for the format even if not designed for the consuming system. In particular, general-purpose [[serialization]] formats, such as [[JSON]], [[XML]], and [[YAML]], are often used in [[Open-source software|open-source]] and [[Cross-platform|platform-neutral]] software. The [[specification]] for these formats are generally publicly available to support wide-spread use.

The following table compares notable formats used for configuration data.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Format comparison<ref>{{Citation |title=TOML |date=2023-01-15 |url=https://github.com/toml-lang/toml |publisher=TOML |access-date=2023-01-15}}</ref>
! scope="col" |Format
! scope="col" |Formal<br>spec
! scope="col" |Allows<br>[[Comment (computer programming)|comments]]
! scope="col" |Syntax<br>typing
|-
|CUE<ref>{{cite web |title=About {{!}} CUE |url=https://cuelang.org/docs/about/ |access-date=October 6, 2022}}</ref>|| {{Yes}} || {{Yes}} || {{good|Yes}}
|-
|[[INI file|INI]]|| {{No}} || {{Yes}} || {{good|No}}
|-
|[[JSON]]|| {{Yes}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8259|title=The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format}}</ref> || {{No}} || {{good|Yes}}
|-
|[[TOML]]|| {{Yes}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://toml.io/en/v1.0.0|title=TOML Specification}}</ref> || {{Yes}} || {{good|Yes}}
|-
|[https://github.com/vstakhov/libucl UCL]|| {{No}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Formal UCL grammar definition · Issue #231 · vstakhov/libucl |url=https://github.com/vstakhov/libucl/issues/231 |website=GitHub |language=en}}</ref> || {{Yes}} || {{good|Yes}}
|-
|[[YAML]]|| {{Yes}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://yaml.org/spec|title=YAML™ Specification Index}}</ref> || {{Yes}} || {{good|Yes}}
|-
|[[XML]]|| {{Yes}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/|title=Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition)}}</ref> || {{Yes}} || {{good|No}}
|}

The ''syntax typing'' column indicates whether the [[Syntax (programming languages)|syntax]] supports [[data type]]s. A format has syntax-typing if a value's type is specified by syntax – e.g. <code>true</code> is a [[Boolean data type|Boolean]] while <code>"true"</code> is a [[String (computer science)|string]]. A format does not have syntax-typing if a value's type is based on [[Semantics (computer science)|semantics]] – e.g. <code>true</code> and <code>"true"</code> are both Boolean if the parser expects a Boolean. Opinions on the value of syntax-typing [https://hitchdev.com/strictyaml/why-not/toml/#4-syntax-typing vary].