3.1 General Rules

The general rules for EDK II INI style documents follow.

Note: Path and Filename elements within the DEC are case-sensitive in order to support building on UNIX style operating systems. Additionally, names that are C variables or used as a macro are case sensitive. Other elements such as section tags or hex digits, in the DEC file are not casesensitive. The use of "..", "../" and "./" in paths and filenames is strictly prohibited.

  • Only one DEC file is permitted per directory.

  • Text in section tags (text within square brackets) is not case sensitive.

  • A section terminates with either another section definition or the end of the file.

  • Entries terminate with either a comment or the end of line character sequence.

  • To append comment information to any item, the comment must start with a hash "#" character.

  • All comments terminate with the end of line character sequence.

  • Any comment not associated with a defined comment format is considered a global comment.

  • Global comments must be separated from formatted comments with a blank line.

  • Comment lines cannot be extended using the line extension character.

  • Field separators for lines that contain more than one field are pipe "|" characters. This character was selected to reduce the possibility of having the field separator character appear in a string, such as a filename or text string.

Note: The only notable exception is the PcdName which is a combination of the

PcdTokenSpaceGuidCName and the PcdCName that are separated by the period "." character. This notation for a PCD name is used to uniquely identify the PCD.

  • When processing numeric values, either integer or hex, leading zeros specified in the entry may be ignored. For example, 0x00000000000000000000001 can be a valid value for a UINT8 data type, as the actual value is 1.

3.1.1 Backslash

The backslash "\" character is used in this document when an example entry cannot fit between the margins of this file. It must not be used in the DEC file to extend an entry.

3.1.2 White space characters

Whitespace (space and tab) characters are permitted between token and field separator elements for all entries.

Whitespace characters are not permitted between the PcdTokenSpaceGuidCName and the dot, nor are they permitted between the dot and the PcdCName.

3.1.3 Paths for filenames

Note that for specifying the path for a file name, if the path value starts with a dollar sign "$" character, a local MACRO is being specified. White space characters are not permitted in path names.

Caution: The use of "..", "./" and "../" in a path element is prohibited.

For all EDK II DEC files, the directory path must use the forward slash character for separating directories. For example, MdePkg/Include/ is Valid.

Unless otherwise noted, all file names and paths must be relative to the directory where the DEC file is located.