Many programs need to be configured with a variety of parameters. In some cases, it's possible to put all these parameters as options on the command line, but this is often unwieldy. In these cases, the program needs to read some type of setup file. Unfortunately, a typical setup files is often quite idiosyncratic, difficult to read and dangerous to manipulate. Parameter files provide a well structured alternative, with a well defined and easy to use interface.
Information appears as key, value pairs.
Keys with embedded whitespace may be specified by enclosing the key in single or double quotes. In that case, the last value specified is the one used. Curly brackets must be balanced, however, as the closing curly bracket indicates the end of the literal value. Any of these lines cause parameter file processing to end at this line. By convention, parameter files are named after the program which uses them, but this is not required.