ResourceLine = Comment | IncludeFile | ResourceSpec | <empty line>
Comment = "!" {<any character except null or newline>}
IncludeFile = "#" WhiteSpace "include" WhiteSpace FileName WhiteSpace
FileName = <valid filename for operating system>
ResourceSpec = WhiteSpace ResourceName WhiteSpace ":" WhiteSpace Value
ResourceName = [Binding] {Component Binding} ComponentName
Binding = "." | "*"
WhiteSpace = {<space> | <horizontal tab>}
Component = "?" | ComponentName
ComponentName = NameChar {NameChar}
NameChar = "a"-"z" | "A"-"Z" | "0"-"9" | "_" | "-"
Value = {<any character except null or unescaped newline>}
Elements separated by vertical bar (|) are alternatives. Curly braces ({...}) indicate zero or more repetitions of the enclosed elements. Square brackets ([...]) indicate that the enclosed element is optional. Quotes ("...") are used around literal characters.
IncludeFile lines are interpreted by replacing the line with the contents of the specified file. The word ``include'' must be in lowercase. The file name is interpreted relative to the directory of the file in which the line occurs (for example, if the file name contains no directory or contains a relative directory specification).
If a ResourceName contains a contiguous sequence of two or more Binding characters, the sequence will be replaced with single ``.'' character if the sequence contains only ``.'' characters; otherwise, the sequence will be replaced with a single ``*'' character.
A resource database never contains more than one entry for a given ResourceName. If a resource file contains multiple lines with the same ResourceName, the last line in the file is used.
Any white space characters before or after the name or colon in a ResourceSpec are ignored. To allow a Value to begin with white space, the two-character sequence ``\space'' (backslash followed by space) is recognized and replaced by a space character, and the two-character sequence ``\tab'' (backslash followed by horizontal tab) is recognized and replaced by a horizontal tab character. To allow a Value to contain embedded newline characters, the two-character sequence ``\n'' is recognized and replaced by a newline character. To allow a Value to be broken across multiple lines in a text file, the two-character sequence ``\newline'' (backslash followed by newline) is recognized and removed from the value. To allow a Value to contain arbitrary character codes, the four-character sequence ``\nnn'', where each n is a digit character in the range of ``0''-``7'', is recognized and replaced with a single byte that contains the octal value specified by the sequence. Finally, the two-character sequence ``\\'' is recognized and replaced with a single backslash.
As an example of these sequences, the following resource line contains a value consisting of four characters: a backslash, a null, a ``z'', and a newline:
magic.values: \\\000\ z\n