[Gimp 2.8] What does a .pat file containes excepte the image ?

[jacques_duflos]

Hello there,
Here is my case : I have made few patterns with gimp as .pat files, and I would like other applications to use them. Unfortunately the .pat files seem to be gimp-native formats and I can't use them as images.

One solution is to stop using the .pat format and to save my patterns as png. But would there be a loss of information ? I would like to know what information does the .pat format contains except the image itself.

Thanks !