The stanzas in props.conf define which events to match based on host, source, and sourcetype. These stanzas are merged into the master configuration based on the uniqueness of stanza and attribute names, as with any other configuration, but there are specific rules governing when each stanza is applied to an event and in what order. Stated as simply as possible, attributes are sorted by type, then by priority, and then by the ASCII value.
We'll cover those rules in the Stanza types section. First, let's look at common attributes.