What is an .inc and why use it?

Question

I often see examples in PHP that include.inc files. What is the meaning of .inc? What it is used for? What are the disadvantages and advantages of using it?

Answer 1

It's just a way for the developer to be able to easily identify files which are meant to be used as includes. It's a popular convention. It does not have any special meaning to PHP, and won't change the behaviour of PHP or the script itself.