FILE extension changing while copying from Ubuntu to windows
I downloaded data in Ubuntu which has an extension .text/plain bit when I copied it to my Windows 10 through USB the file extension is changed to '.file'. What should I do now to open it?
windows files file-format file-type
New contributor
add a comment |
I downloaded data in Ubuntu which has an extension .text/plain bit when I copied it to my Windows 10 through USB the file extension is changed to '.file'. What should I do now to open it?
windows files file-format file-type
New contributor
1
Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't use extensions so it wouldn't be Ubuntu that is changing the name of the file. Whatever program you are using to copy/transfer the file to windows (most likely on the windows end) is changing the filename as a means of 'security' (as windows uses extension to control action; Ubuntu uses file contents). If youfile filename
(where filename is the name of your file) you can view the type of file according to Ubuntu or any *nix)
– guiverc
8 hours ago
@guiverc Ubuntu certainly does use file extensions to the same extent Windows does. File extensions are standardised by IANA along with media types and shells such as Gnome and KDE use them for identifying icons and appropriate actions, which is exactly what Windows Explorer does.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben NO. Linux does not. Extensions are there to make it easier for humans to see what the file is. There is software for the desktop (!= Linux) that expect files to be named with an extension but Linux in itself does not care about that. And even then: the extensions are matched with a mime-type list.
– Rinzwind
4 hours ago
@Rinzwind Ubuntu = linux distribution(s), and Ubuntu certainly does use extensions. Linux kernel also uses extensions for some limited purposes, e.g. loader locating so files. Overall Linux distributions use extensions for the same purposes as Windows, and used by the equivalent components, Windows Explorer being the equivalent of the Linux graphical shells like Gnome and KDE. It's possible to install Windows without the graphical shell, in which case most uses of file extensions will not occur.
– Ben
41 mins ago
The desktop does but only to make things speed up a little bit. If those desktop coders would follow the correct method they too would scan for the 1st few bytes like linux does. And no: linux and ubuntu is not the same. Ubuntu is the desktop built on top of Linux.Those few tweaks made to the kernel don't matter
– Rinzwind
5 mins ago
add a comment |
I downloaded data in Ubuntu which has an extension .text/plain bit when I copied it to my Windows 10 through USB the file extension is changed to '.file'. What should I do now to open it?
windows files file-format file-type
New contributor
I downloaded data in Ubuntu which has an extension .text/plain bit when I copied it to my Windows 10 through USB the file extension is changed to '.file'. What should I do now to open it?
windows files file-format file-type
windows files file-format file-type
New contributor
New contributor
edited 3 hours ago
Arronical
13.2k84790
13.2k84790
New contributor
asked 8 hours ago
ammuammu
141
141
New contributor
New contributor
1
Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't use extensions so it wouldn't be Ubuntu that is changing the name of the file. Whatever program you are using to copy/transfer the file to windows (most likely on the windows end) is changing the filename as a means of 'security' (as windows uses extension to control action; Ubuntu uses file contents). If youfile filename
(where filename is the name of your file) you can view the type of file according to Ubuntu or any *nix)
– guiverc
8 hours ago
@guiverc Ubuntu certainly does use file extensions to the same extent Windows does. File extensions are standardised by IANA along with media types and shells such as Gnome and KDE use them for identifying icons and appropriate actions, which is exactly what Windows Explorer does.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben NO. Linux does not. Extensions are there to make it easier for humans to see what the file is. There is software for the desktop (!= Linux) that expect files to be named with an extension but Linux in itself does not care about that. And even then: the extensions are matched with a mime-type list.
– Rinzwind
4 hours ago
@Rinzwind Ubuntu = linux distribution(s), and Ubuntu certainly does use extensions. Linux kernel also uses extensions for some limited purposes, e.g. loader locating so files. Overall Linux distributions use extensions for the same purposes as Windows, and used by the equivalent components, Windows Explorer being the equivalent of the Linux graphical shells like Gnome and KDE. It's possible to install Windows without the graphical shell, in which case most uses of file extensions will not occur.
– Ben
41 mins ago
The desktop does but only to make things speed up a little bit. If those desktop coders would follow the correct method they too would scan for the 1st few bytes like linux does. And no: linux and ubuntu is not the same. Ubuntu is the desktop built on top of Linux.Those few tweaks made to the kernel don't matter
– Rinzwind
5 mins ago
add a comment |
1
Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't use extensions so it wouldn't be Ubuntu that is changing the name of the file. Whatever program you are using to copy/transfer the file to windows (most likely on the windows end) is changing the filename as a means of 'security' (as windows uses extension to control action; Ubuntu uses file contents). If youfile filename
(where filename is the name of your file) you can view the type of file according to Ubuntu or any *nix)
– guiverc
8 hours ago
@guiverc Ubuntu certainly does use file extensions to the same extent Windows does. File extensions are standardised by IANA along with media types and shells such as Gnome and KDE use them for identifying icons and appropriate actions, which is exactly what Windows Explorer does.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben NO. Linux does not. Extensions are there to make it easier for humans to see what the file is. There is software for the desktop (!= Linux) that expect files to be named with an extension but Linux in itself does not care about that. And even then: the extensions are matched with a mime-type list.
– Rinzwind
4 hours ago
@Rinzwind Ubuntu = linux distribution(s), and Ubuntu certainly does use extensions. Linux kernel also uses extensions for some limited purposes, e.g. loader locating so files. Overall Linux distributions use extensions for the same purposes as Windows, and used by the equivalent components, Windows Explorer being the equivalent of the Linux graphical shells like Gnome and KDE. It's possible to install Windows without the graphical shell, in which case most uses of file extensions will not occur.
– Ben
41 mins ago
The desktop does but only to make things speed up a little bit. If those desktop coders would follow the correct method they too would scan for the 1st few bytes like linux does. And no: linux and ubuntu is not the same. Ubuntu is the desktop built on top of Linux.Those few tweaks made to the kernel don't matter
– Rinzwind
5 mins ago
1
1
Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't use extensions so it wouldn't be Ubuntu that is changing the name of the file. Whatever program you are using to copy/transfer the file to windows (most likely on the windows end) is changing the filename as a means of 'security' (as windows uses extension to control action; Ubuntu uses file contents). If you
file filename
(where filename is the name of your file) you can view the type of file according to Ubuntu or any *nix)– guiverc
8 hours ago
Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't use extensions so it wouldn't be Ubuntu that is changing the name of the file. Whatever program you are using to copy/transfer the file to windows (most likely on the windows end) is changing the filename as a means of 'security' (as windows uses extension to control action; Ubuntu uses file contents). If you
file filename
(where filename is the name of your file) you can view the type of file according to Ubuntu or any *nix)– guiverc
8 hours ago
@guiverc Ubuntu certainly does use file extensions to the same extent Windows does. File extensions are standardised by IANA along with media types and shells such as Gnome and KDE use them for identifying icons and appropriate actions, which is exactly what Windows Explorer does.
– Ben
5 hours ago
@guiverc Ubuntu certainly does use file extensions to the same extent Windows does. File extensions are standardised by IANA along with media types and shells such as Gnome and KDE use them for identifying icons and appropriate actions, which is exactly what Windows Explorer does.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
1
@Ben NO. Linux does not. Extensions are there to make it easier for humans to see what the file is. There is software for the desktop (!= Linux) that expect files to be named with an extension but Linux in itself does not care about that. And even then: the extensions are matched with a mime-type list.
– Rinzwind
4 hours ago
@Ben NO. Linux does not. Extensions are there to make it easier for humans to see what the file is. There is software for the desktop (!= Linux) that expect files to be named with an extension but Linux in itself does not care about that. And even then: the extensions are matched with a mime-type list.
– Rinzwind
4 hours ago
@Rinzwind Ubuntu = linux distribution(s), and Ubuntu certainly does use extensions. Linux kernel also uses extensions for some limited purposes, e.g. loader locating so files. Overall Linux distributions use extensions for the same purposes as Windows, and used by the equivalent components, Windows Explorer being the equivalent of the Linux graphical shells like Gnome and KDE. It's possible to install Windows without the graphical shell, in which case most uses of file extensions will not occur.
– Ben
41 mins ago
@Rinzwind Ubuntu = linux distribution(s), and Ubuntu certainly does use extensions. Linux kernel also uses extensions for some limited purposes, e.g. loader locating so files. Overall Linux distributions use extensions for the same purposes as Windows, and used by the equivalent components, Windows Explorer being the equivalent of the Linux graphical shells like Gnome and KDE. It's possible to install Windows without the graphical shell, in which case most uses of file extensions will not occur.
– Ben
41 mins ago
The desktop does but only to make things speed up a little bit. If those desktop coders would follow the correct method they too would scan for the 1st few bytes like linux does. And no: linux and ubuntu is not the same. Ubuntu is the desktop built on top of Linux.Those few tweaks made to the kernel don't matter
– Rinzwind
5 mins ago
The desktop does but only to make things speed up a little bit. If those desktop coders would follow the correct method they too would scan for the 1st few bytes like linux does. And no: linux and ubuntu is not the same. Ubuntu is the desktop built on top of Linux.Those few tweaks made to the kernel don't matter
– Rinzwind
5 mins ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
It appears that Windows adds the .file
extension to any file with an extension it doesn't know/recognise. Understandable, because text/plain
is not a file extension but rather a 'content type'.
It seems that opening the file has worked on Ubuntu, because GNOME can "associate a media type with a file by examining both the filename suffix and the contents of the file" (Wikipedia).
To open the file in Windows, you can simply change the extension from .file
to .txt
, which is the most likely filetype. However, depending on where and for what purpose you downloaded the file, it could also be a .dat
(data) or other file. If you don't know how to change the file type, I'd advice to Google for it as that seems out of scope for this Ubuntu-oriented site :)
2
Nice one. Just a pointer you can always expand/modify your answer (by clicking 'edit' below it) instead of deleting it and posting a new one :) Similarly you can 'undelete' an answer you deleted.
– pomsky
7 hours ago
3
More to the point, in Windows the character/
infilename.text/plain
is not a valid character for a filename. In Windows, filenames are not arbitrary sequences of bytes but a user-interface element with restrictions placed upon them to serve that purpose. Therefore control characters, and special shell metacharacters are not allowed. Whatever utility the poster used to copy the file has taken care of this issue.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben This restriction (no/
in filenames) also holds for Linux. AFAIR, there are only two forbidden characters in a Linux filename:/
and. This means the file the OP downloaded CANNOT have an extension of
.plain/text
.
– PerlDuck
3 hours ago
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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It appears that Windows adds the .file
extension to any file with an extension it doesn't know/recognise. Understandable, because text/plain
is not a file extension but rather a 'content type'.
It seems that opening the file has worked on Ubuntu, because GNOME can "associate a media type with a file by examining both the filename suffix and the contents of the file" (Wikipedia).
To open the file in Windows, you can simply change the extension from .file
to .txt
, which is the most likely filetype. However, depending on where and for what purpose you downloaded the file, it could also be a .dat
(data) or other file. If you don't know how to change the file type, I'd advice to Google for it as that seems out of scope for this Ubuntu-oriented site :)
2
Nice one. Just a pointer you can always expand/modify your answer (by clicking 'edit' below it) instead of deleting it and posting a new one :) Similarly you can 'undelete' an answer you deleted.
– pomsky
7 hours ago
3
More to the point, in Windows the character/
infilename.text/plain
is not a valid character for a filename. In Windows, filenames are not arbitrary sequences of bytes but a user-interface element with restrictions placed upon them to serve that purpose. Therefore control characters, and special shell metacharacters are not allowed. Whatever utility the poster used to copy the file has taken care of this issue.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben This restriction (no/
in filenames) also holds for Linux. AFAIR, there are only two forbidden characters in a Linux filename:/
and. This means the file the OP downloaded CANNOT have an extension of
.plain/text
.
– PerlDuck
3 hours ago
add a comment |
It appears that Windows adds the .file
extension to any file with an extension it doesn't know/recognise. Understandable, because text/plain
is not a file extension but rather a 'content type'.
It seems that opening the file has worked on Ubuntu, because GNOME can "associate a media type with a file by examining both the filename suffix and the contents of the file" (Wikipedia).
To open the file in Windows, you can simply change the extension from .file
to .txt
, which is the most likely filetype. However, depending on where and for what purpose you downloaded the file, it could also be a .dat
(data) or other file. If you don't know how to change the file type, I'd advice to Google for it as that seems out of scope for this Ubuntu-oriented site :)
2
Nice one. Just a pointer you can always expand/modify your answer (by clicking 'edit' below it) instead of deleting it and posting a new one :) Similarly you can 'undelete' an answer you deleted.
– pomsky
7 hours ago
3
More to the point, in Windows the character/
infilename.text/plain
is not a valid character for a filename. In Windows, filenames are not arbitrary sequences of bytes but a user-interface element with restrictions placed upon them to serve that purpose. Therefore control characters, and special shell metacharacters are not allowed. Whatever utility the poster used to copy the file has taken care of this issue.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben This restriction (no/
in filenames) also holds for Linux. AFAIR, there are only two forbidden characters in a Linux filename:/
and. This means the file the OP downloaded CANNOT have an extension of
.plain/text
.
– PerlDuck
3 hours ago
add a comment |
It appears that Windows adds the .file
extension to any file with an extension it doesn't know/recognise. Understandable, because text/plain
is not a file extension but rather a 'content type'.
It seems that opening the file has worked on Ubuntu, because GNOME can "associate a media type with a file by examining both the filename suffix and the contents of the file" (Wikipedia).
To open the file in Windows, you can simply change the extension from .file
to .txt
, which is the most likely filetype. However, depending on where and for what purpose you downloaded the file, it could also be a .dat
(data) or other file. If you don't know how to change the file type, I'd advice to Google for it as that seems out of scope for this Ubuntu-oriented site :)
It appears that Windows adds the .file
extension to any file with an extension it doesn't know/recognise. Understandable, because text/plain
is not a file extension but rather a 'content type'.
It seems that opening the file has worked on Ubuntu, because GNOME can "associate a media type with a file by examining both the filename suffix and the contents of the file" (Wikipedia).
To open the file in Windows, you can simply change the extension from .file
to .txt
, which is the most likely filetype. However, depending on where and for what purpose you downloaded the file, it could also be a .dat
(data) or other file. If you don't know how to change the file type, I'd advice to Google for it as that seems out of scope for this Ubuntu-oriented site :)
answered 8 hours ago
KoenKoen
322324
322324
2
Nice one. Just a pointer you can always expand/modify your answer (by clicking 'edit' below it) instead of deleting it and posting a new one :) Similarly you can 'undelete' an answer you deleted.
– pomsky
7 hours ago
3
More to the point, in Windows the character/
infilename.text/plain
is not a valid character for a filename. In Windows, filenames are not arbitrary sequences of bytes but a user-interface element with restrictions placed upon them to serve that purpose. Therefore control characters, and special shell metacharacters are not allowed. Whatever utility the poster used to copy the file has taken care of this issue.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben This restriction (no/
in filenames) also holds for Linux. AFAIR, there are only two forbidden characters in a Linux filename:/
and. This means the file the OP downloaded CANNOT have an extension of
.plain/text
.
– PerlDuck
3 hours ago
add a comment |
2
Nice one. Just a pointer you can always expand/modify your answer (by clicking 'edit' below it) instead of deleting it and posting a new one :) Similarly you can 'undelete' an answer you deleted.
– pomsky
7 hours ago
3
More to the point, in Windows the character/
infilename.text/plain
is not a valid character for a filename. In Windows, filenames are not arbitrary sequences of bytes but a user-interface element with restrictions placed upon them to serve that purpose. Therefore control characters, and special shell metacharacters are not allowed. Whatever utility the poster used to copy the file has taken care of this issue.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben This restriction (no/
in filenames) also holds for Linux. AFAIR, there are only two forbidden characters in a Linux filename:/
and. This means the file the OP downloaded CANNOT have an extension of
.plain/text
.
– PerlDuck
3 hours ago
2
2
Nice one. Just a pointer you can always expand/modify your answer (by clicking 'edit' below it) instead of deleting it and posting a new one :) Similarly you can 'undelete' an answer you deleted.
– pomsky
7 hours ago
Nice one. Just a pointer you can always expand/modify your answer (by clicking 'edit' below it) instead of deleting it and posting a new one :) Similarly you can 'undelete' an answer you deleted.
– pomsky
7 hours ago
3
3
More to the point, in Windows the character
/
in filename.text/plain
is not a valid character for a filename. In Windows, filenames are not arbitrary sequences of bytes but a user-interface element with restrictions placed upon them to serve that purpose. Therefore control characters, and special shell metacharacters are not allowed. Whatever utility the poster used to copy the file has taken care of this issue.– Ben
5 hours ago
More to the point, in Windows the character
/
in filename.text/plain
is not a valid character for a filename. In Windows, filenames are not arbitrary sequences of bytes but a user-interface element with restrictions placed upon them to serve that purpose. Therefore control characters, and special shell metacharacters are not allowed. Whatever utility the poster used to copy the file has taken care of this issue.– Ben
5 hours ago
1
1
@Ben This restriction (no
/
in filenames) also holds for Linux. AFAIR, there are only two forbidden characters in a Linux filename: /
and
. This means the file the OP downloaded CANNOT have an extension of .plain/text
.– PerlDuck
3 hours ago
@Ben This restriction (no
/
in filenames) also holds for Linux. AFAIR, there are only two forbidden characters in a Linux filename: /
and
. This means the file the OP downloaded CANNOT have an extension of .plain/text
.– PerlDuck
3 hours ago
add a comment |
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1
Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't use extensions so it wouldn't be Ubuntu that is changing the name of the file. Whatever program you are using to copy/transfer the file to windows (most likely on the windows end) is changing the filename as a means of 'security' (as windows uses extension to control action; Ubuntu uses file contents). If you
file filename
(where filename is the name of your file) you can view the type of file according to Ubuntu or any *nix)– guiverc
8 hours ago
@guiverc Ubuntu certainly does use file extensions to the same extent Windows does. File extensions are standardised by IANA along with media types and shells such as Gnome and KDE use them for identifying icons and appropriate actions, which is exactly what Windows Explorer does.
– Ben
5 hours ago
1
@Ben NO. Linux does not. Extensions are there to make it easier for humans to see what the file is. There is software for the desktop (!= Linux) that expect files to be named with an extension but Linux in itself does not care about that. And even then: the extensions are matched with a mime-type list.
– Rinzwind
4 hours ago
@Rinzwind Ubuntu = linux distribution(s), and Ubuntu certainly does use extensions. Linux kernel also uses extensions for some limited purposes, e.g. loader locating so files. Overall Linux distributions use extensions for the same purposes as Windows, and used by the equivalent components, Windows Explorer being the equivalent of the Linux graphical shells like Gnome and KDE. It's possible to install Windows without the graphical shell, in which case most uses of file extensions will not occur.
– Ben
41 mins ago
The desktop does but only to make things speed up a little bit. If those desktop coders would follow the correct method they too would scan for the 1st few bytes like linux does. And no: linux and ubuntu is not the same. Ubuntu is the desktop built on top of Linux.Those few tweaks made to the kernel don't matter
– Rinzwind
5 mins ago