What is the difference between README and README.md in GitHub projects?

I've noticed some GitHub projects have not only a README file, but also a README.md file.

What is the difference between these files? I know README serves also as introductory text in the project repository page but I have no idea what README.md does.

Solution 1:

.md is markdown. README.md is used to generate the html summary you see at the bottom of projects. Github has their own flavor of Markdown.

Order of Preference: If you have two files named README and README.md, the file named README.md is preferred, and it will be used to generate github's html summary.

FWIW, Stack Overflow uses local Markdown modifications as well (also see Stack Overflow's C# Markdown Processor)

Solution 2:

.md stands for markdown and is generated at the bottom of your github page as html.

Typical syntax includes:

Will become a heading
==============

Will become a sub heading
--------------

*This will be Italic*

**This will be Bold**

- This will be a list item
- This will be a list item

    Add a indent and this will end up as code

For more details: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/

Solution 3:

.md extension stands for Markdown, which Github uses, among others, to format those files.

Read about Markdown:

http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown

Also:

http://github.github.com/github-flavored-markdown/