# Designing the segmentModifier
<a name="hls-segmentModifier-design-emp"></a>

Design the segmentModifiers portion of the destination path. The segmentModifier is optional, and if you include it, only the media file names include it. 

A typical use case for this modifier is to use a data variable to create a timestamp, to prevent segments overriding each other if the channel restarts. For example, assume that you include the timestamp **\$1t\$1-**. Segment 00001 might have the name `index-120028-00001`. If the output restarts a few minutes later (which causes the segment counter to restart), the new segment 00001 will have the name `index-120039-00001`. The new file won't overwrite the file for the original segment 00001. Some downstream systems might prefer this behavior.