File management/Description file

The description file is a concept where a file placed within a directory allows specifying descriptions for files and sub-directories that are previewed in the file listing. As of 2022, file systems lack such a feature natively, and even if the developers of a specific file system implemented it, a file-system-level description would be lost when transferred to a different file system, whereas implementing it as a metadata file that is rendered by the file manager allows for retaining the information between file systems.

The description file is also inspired by desktop.ini, in which the Windows File Explorer can specify the appearance of its parent directory, as well as the former "playlist notes" feature of YouTube, allowing playlist creators to add short notes to playlist items.

This can be of use when renaming the actual file is not desirable or not possible due to technical limitations such as length and expected location by software that uses it, such as the file naming scheme used by digital cameras.

Should the description for a file that does not exist be specified, that can simply be ignored.

Example appearance
In this example, the file " " exists in the same directory as the files " " and " ".

The content of  is:

In the directory listing of the file manager, it could appear as follows:

Alternatively, if sufficient screen space is available, the comment can be displayed in a separate column: