Relative and Absolute Paths
July 19, 1998
The first thing we need to
understand is how the file system is addressed.
That is, how do you know where within the file system
you are or where your file is located?
UNIX has an address system based upon
file paths. A file path specifies the route
that you need to take in order to find a file within the file tree
much like a map directs you from one location to another.
In UNIX, all paths start from the
"root" directory. The root directory is specified by
a single slash "/" character. From there, steps along
the path are separated by successive slash characters.
Thus, the path
"/usr/selena/public_html/index.html" specifies a file called
"index.html" which is located in the "public_html" directory,
which is a sub-directory of "selena", which is a sub-directory of
"usr", which is itself a sub-directory of "root"!
This type of path is called an absolute path
because it references a file or directory absolutely from the
root.
However, paths can also be relative to your current
location within the file system. To specify a relative path, you do not
specify the path from "root" by not including the initial slash character.
For example, if we were currently located in the
"selena" sub-directory, we could refer to the file "index.html"
using the path "public_html/index.html". Notice that since we
do not include the initial "/" UNIX will assume that the
specified path is relative to your current location which is
"/usr/selena".
Two final important path tools are the
".." and "." notations. In short, ".." stands for the directory
directly above the present directory and the "." refers to the
present directory.
Thus, if we were in the "public_html" directory
from our example above,
"./.." would stand for the "selena" directory and "./../.." would
stand for the "usr" directory. If this is all a bit confusing now
don't worry, you can learn this by actually doing it on a UNIX
machine. It will all make more sense when you can do it
yourself.
Additional Resources:
The File System
Introduction to UNIX for Web Developers | Table of Contents
The "pwd" Command
|
