A proposal for file extension of back up files

There are several extensions used for backup files: 

• .0, .1, etc.
• .old, 
• .bak, 
• .backup, 
• .bkp, 
• ~ suffix
• .orig
• .save
  
• .baka, etc. 
  

Based on Reddit votes, the most used is .bak; therefore, we should use the extension used by common sense.

(Proposed) Specification:

1. A backup file must be named with the extension .bak
2. If there are multiple backups, the next backup extension must be added with an integer, e.g., .bak1, .bak2, etc.
3. The above rules also apply for folder or directory, e.g., folderA.bak, dirB.bak1.

Finding all backup files

To find all backup files, simply use a shell command

$ ls *.bak*
a.bak  a.bak0  a.bak1  a.bak2


Update: 

• 2026/03/23: Sometimes, I found adding .0, .1, is simpler and shorter. 

Project Naming / Penamaan Proyek (file, direktori, variable, identifier)

While there are plenty of projects that fail with descriptive names and plenty that succeed without them, I think naming your project is worth giving a bit of thought. Leslie Orchard tackles this issue in an  Advogato article (http://www.advogato.org/article/67.html). His article is short and definitely worth looking over quickly.

The synopsis is that Orchard recommends you pick a name where, after hearing the name, many users or developers will both:

• Know what the project does.
• Remember it tomorrow.