[[configuration_files]]
General
=======

Most configuration files in {pve} reside on the
xref:chapter_pmxcfs[shared cluster file system] mounted at `/etc/pve`. There are
exceptions, like the node-specific configuration file for backups in
`/etc/vzdump.conf`.

Usually, the properties in a configuration file are derived from the JSON Schema
that is also used for the associated API endpoints.

[[configuration_files_casing]]
Casing of Property Names
------------------------

Historically, longer properties (and sub-properties) often used `snake_case`, or
were written as one word. This can likely be attributed to the {pve} stack being
developed mostly in the programming language Perl, where access to properties
using `kebab-case` requires additional quotes, as well as less style enforcement
during early development, so different developers used different conventions.

For new properties, `kebab-case` is the preferred way and it is planned to
introduce aliases for existing `snake_case` properties, and in the long term,
switch over to `kebab-case` for the API, CLI and in-use configuration files
while maintaining backwards-compatibility when restoring a configuration.

include::datacenter.cfg.adoc[]