In UNIX® and Linux® all folders are arranged in a simple inverted tree structure descending and branching down from from a single top level folder. This means that you can get from any folder to any other by going “up” until you reach a common point then “down” through the appropriate subfolders until you reach your target.
The position of any file or folder in the tree can be described by its
“path”, which is a simple list of the folders you would have
to descend through to get to the target folder or file. For example
/home/pam
is the subfolder pam
of the subfolder home
of the top level folder, and
/home/pam/words.txt
is the file words.txt
in
that subfolder. The leading “/” in these paths represents the
top level folder.
Every folder accessible by your system — including those on other hard disk partitions, your floppy and CD-ROM — will appear in the tree descending from /, their exact paths will depend on how your system was set up (see also the section on Floppy and CD-ROM Drives).
Every user on a UNIX® / Linux® system has their own “home”
folder to hold their personal files and settings; for example
/home/john
and
/home/mary
. The
symbol ~ is often used to represent the user's home
folder, so that ~/letter.txt
refers to the file
letter.txt
in my home folder.
Note that the term “directory” is often used instead of “folder”.
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