12.2 Pony metadata extension

New in ponysay 3.0 is pony metadata, this feature is not supported in util-say (at least not yet). It extends the previously described⁴ format of the pony files, by letting you specify details about the pony image, and the pony itself, as well as adding comments.

The metadata entry must be at the absolute beginning of the file (UTF-8 signture excluded), and is the file must be encoded in UNIX line breaks. The metadata entry begins with a line with exact 3 dollar signs and nothing else ($$$), and end in the same way direct follow by the pony image starting from the next line.

A metadata tag consists of a tag name in upper case and a tag value, with a colon (:), optionally with regular spaces or tab spaces. Multiple tag names can be used multiple times or can be completely skipped. There are only a few tags, namely BALLOON TOP, BALLOON BOTTOM, MASTER, FREE, that absolutely should not be used muliple tag; a general rule is that a tag desribing a pony should be duplicated exact as many times as there are ponies in the image.

Any line that does not conform to the format of a tag line is a part of the comment field. Leading line breaks in the comment field is ignored.