---
title: "Best practice for naming files in Linux"
description: "If you are developing your website and you cannot find out why your pages, images, JavaScripts, and other web data is causing a 404 error not found, you may have a problem with case sensitivity...."
url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/server/linux/best-practice-for-naming-files-in-linux/
date: 2013-04-17
modified: 2024-09-05
author: "InMotion Hosting Contributor"
categories: ["Linux"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Best practice for naming files in Linux

If you are developing your website and you cannot find out why your pages, images, JavaScripts, and other web data is causing a [404 error not found](/support/website/error-numbers/404-error-page-not-found/), you may have a problem with case sensitivity.

Linux servers are case sensitive. Windows servers are not case sensitive, so if you are moving your files from a Windows development platform to a Linux web platform you may need to watch out for the following common mistakes.

## Common Case Sensitive errors

### Mixing Upper case and lower case

A common mistake is naming files a mixture of upper case and lower case. Like the following:

MyFileName.html

Linux reads the file name exactly the way its typed. So,

MyFileName.html

Is NOT the same as:

myfilename.html

### Incorrect types file extension

File extensions are case sensitive as well. Some file types have 4 letters and others 3. See the following example:

Likewise, file extensions need to be exact as well:

MyFileName.HTML

Is NOT the same as:

myfilename.html

Also, image extensions must be the right type:

image.jpg

Is NOT the same as:

image.jpeg

## Best practices for Linux file naming

To prevent running into problems with your file paths on your site, we recommend following the best practices for file naming. See the below:

1. Name all your files lower case.
2. Instead of using a space, use an ( _ ) or a ( – )
3. Use consistent file types. Use jpg or jpeg. Don’t use both.
4. Only alphanumeric characters, periods, underscores and hyphens and don’t use symbols like “%”, “$”, and so forth.
5. Keep the file names short and descriptive.