Information files consist of one or more sections. Each section starts with a section name, enclosed in brackets ([]), and contains one or more entries (or information lines). A setting specifies the names, settings, and sections that Setup and Control Panel use to identify and install drivers.
Each setting consists of one or more parameters, separated by commas (,). A parameter specifies information such as the driver filename, driver description, and the filename of associated files. In some cases, a parameter specifies the name of a related section in the information file that contains additional settings for the driver.
The following example illustrates the general syntax of information files:
; Example OEMSETUP.INF information file
[disks]
1 =. ,"Generic Printer Distribution Disk",disk1
[io.device]
1:TTY.DRV,"Generic / Text Only","DEVICESPECIFIC"
[io.dependent]
tty.drv = 1:tty.hlp
This example has three sections, [disks], [io.device], and [io.dependent], that specify the files that Control Panel needs to install the generic printer, TTY.DRV, and its associated help file. Information files can include comments, but each comment must be preceded by a semicolon (;).
Whenever a filename is given in an information file it must have the form:
id:filename
In this example, id is a valid disk identifier and filename is a valid MS-DOS filename. A valid disk identifier is any identifier given in the [disks] section of the information file. This section names the distribution disk or disks and assigns disk identifiers.