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A path is the general form of a file or directory name, giving a file's name and its unique location in a file system. Paths point to their location using a string of characters signifying directories, separated by a delimiting character, most commonly the slash "/" or backslash character "\", though some operating systems may use a different delimiter. Paths are used extensively in computer science to represent the folder/file relationships common in modern operating systems, and are essential in the construction of URLs.
A path can be either absolute or relative. An absolute path is a path that points to the same location on one file system regardless of the working directory or combined paths. It is usually written in reference to a root directory.
A relative path is a path relative to the current working directory, so the full absolute path may not need to be given.
Representations of Paths by Operating System
On Unix-like operating systems, $PATH is an environment variable listing directories where common executables may be found.
Example
Here is an example with a Unix style file system as it would appear from a terminal or terminal application (command-line window):
Your current working directory (cwd)is:
/users/mark/
You want to change your current working directory (cwd) to:
/users/mark/bobapples
At that moment, the relative path for the directory you want is:
./bobapples
and the absolute path for the directory you want is
/users/mark/bobapples
Because bobapples is the relative path for the directory you want, you may type the following at the CLI to change your current working directory to bobapples:
cd bobapples
Two dots are used for moving up in the hierarchy, to indicate the parent directory; one dot represents the current directory.
Windows also uses the path extensively throughout the modern editions of its operating systems and Office applications, which users can customize. By default, in Windows 98 or above, each folder and Windows Explorer window has an address bar by which you can navigate a different path, or view the path of the current working directory.
The "find" and "search" utilities under Windows have always featured the path as a sortable option, though in Windows 95 the column was truncated by default, allowing the user to resize the "path" column manually until the path became sufficiently visible.
In Windows 98, (and above), it is part of the metadata displayed in Windows Explorer's HTML-containing window pane above the search results if you are using the Search sidebar--a function that in XP is seamlessly integrated with Explorer and Internet Explorer's Search sidebar. To be clear, the formerly available separate front-end used for searching the Windows file system has been eliminated from the currently available Windows product line.
See also
See path to reference other homonyms that use this nomenclature.
References
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