5A File naming conventions

Specifications shall be maintained in the form of computer-based files. The file name shall be of the form

aabbb-xyz.eee

where:

aa and bbb have the same significance as in the specification number (see tables 1 and 2);

x, y and z have the same significance as in the version number (see table 6);

eee is the de facto standard filename extension corresponding to the software tool used to create the file (normally "doc" for Microsoft Word ®).

For multi-part specifications, the filename shall be extended to

aabbb-n-xyz.eee

Where:

n is the part number (see tables 6 and 6A).

To save storage space and to speed up uploading and downloading, source files shall be saved compressed in industry standard "Zip" ® format. The filename of the zipped file shall be the same as that of the contained source file, and it shall bear the file extension ".zip".

If a specification consists of multiple source files - for example, when a very long document is divided into several smaller files for ease of editing and manipulation - , each file should be named with the above convention, but appending a file identifier in the form:

aabbb-xyz(m).eee

where:

m is the file number using characters from table 6 or 6A.

Where a specification has accompanying files - e.g. ASN.1 coding, C programming language code, TTCN test sequences, etc. - it may not be convenient or possible to abide by the last-mentioned rule. Under these circumstances, the associated files shall be contained in a separate zip file, which shall itself abide by the multiple-source-file rule. A "readme" text file should be included in that zip file to explain the nature of each other file.

EXAMPLE 1: 29341-420.zip is the compressed file of specification 29.341 version 4.2.0.

EXAMPLE 2: 31811-m-6g2.doc is the source file of specification 31.811 part 22 version 6.16.2.

EXAMPLE 3: 22354-480(1).doc and 22354-480(2).doc are the two files which make up specification 22.354 version 4.8.0 (and which will both be compressed into file 22354-480.zip).

EXAMPLE 4: 34101-300(1).doc and 34101-300(2).zip are the source text file and the compressed set of TTCN files respectively which together comprise 34.101 version 3.0.0.

Draft versions of specifications may be made available in the responsible Groups' directories. Such versions shall be clearly distinguishable from "official" versions by substituting "d" for the hyphen before the version code. Thus:

aabbbdxyz.eee

(for example, 28033d410.zip). Such files shall never appear in the official specification directories.

The foregoing file format using three characters for the version number is valid as long as none of the three version elements (major, technical, editorial) exceeds the value 35, since the characters 0..9, a..z represent a base-36 value. If any one or more of the three version elements exceeds 35 then the file format shall be modified to use two decimal characters in the range 00 to 99 for each element, i.e. six characters in all.

EXAMPLE 5: Version 15.35.0 of TS 29.341 would have the file name 29341-fz0.Version 15.36.0 of TS 29.341 would have the file name 29341-153600.(The file extension is omitted for clarity.)

For specification part and sub-part numbers, one or two characters may be used, 0..9 or 00..99. Ideally the intended number of parts and sub-parts should be known when the first specification numbers are allocated so that the correct number of digits can be used from the outset, ensuring that filenames are correctly sorted when listed.

EXAMPLE 6: Permissible filenames for multi-part specifications (file extensions omitted for clarity):29341-1-529342-2-1529343-13-2129344-08-5529345-19-6

Part and sub-part numbers shall not use characters a..z, but shall always be one- or two-digit decimal values.

Table 6: Characters used in filenames to represent numeric values – single character

Table 6A: Characters used in filenames to represent numeric values – two character