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<title>Directory (computing)</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Directory (computing)</span></span>

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<p>In <a href="Computing" title="Computing">computing</a>, a <b>directory</b> is a <a href="File_system" title="File system">file system</a> cataloging structure that contains references to other <a href="Computer_file" title="Computer file">computer files</a>, and possibly other directories. On many computers, directories are known as <b>folders</b> or <b>drawers</b>,<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="Analogy" title="Analogy">analogous</a> to a <a href="Workbench" title="Workbench">workbench</a> or the traditional office <a href="Filing_cabinet" title="Filing cabinet">filing cabinet</a>. The name derives from books like a <a href="Telephone_directory" title="Telephone directory">telephone directory</a> that lists the phone numbers of all the people living in a certain area.

</p><p>Files are organized by storing related files in the same directory. In a <a href="Hierarchical_file_system" title="Hierarchical file system">hierarchical file system</a> (that is, one in which files and directories are organized in a manner that resembles a <a href="Tree_structure" title="Tree structure">tree</a>), a directory contained inside another directory is called a <b>subdirectory</b>. The terms <b>parent</b> and <b>child</b> are often used to describe the relationship between a subdirectory and the directory in which it is cataloged, the latter being the parent. The top-most directory in such a filesystem, which does not have a parent of its own, is called the <b>root</b> directory.

</p><p>The <a href="Freedesktop.org" title="Freedesktop.org">freedesktop.org</a> media type for directories within many <a href="Unix-like" title="Unix-like">Unix-like</a> systems – including but not limited to systems using <a href="GNOME" title="GNOME">GNOME</a>, <a href="KDE_Plasma_5" title="KDE Plasma 5">KDE Plasma 5</a>, or <a href="ROX_Desktop" title="ROX Desktop">ROX Desktop</a> as the desktop environment – is "inode/directory".<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This is not an <a href="Media_type" title="Media type">IANA registered media type</a>.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Overview">Overview</h2></div>

<p>Historically, and even on some modern <a href="Embedded_system" title="Embedded system">embedded systems</a>, the file systems either had no support for directories at all or had only a "flat" <a href="Directory_structure" title="Directory structure">directory structure</a>, meaning subdirectories were not supported; there was only a group of top-level directories, each containing files. In modern systems, a directory can contain a mix of files and subdirectories.

</p><p>A reference to a location in a directory system is called a <a href="Path_(computing)" title="Path (computing)">path</a>.

</p><p>In many <a href="Operating_system" title="Operating system">operating systems</a>, programs have an associated <a href="Working_directory" title="Working directory">working directory</a> in which they execute. Typically, file names accessed by the program are assumed to reside within this directory if the file names are not specified with an explicit directory name.

</p><p>Some operating systems restrict a <a href="Computer_user" class="mw-redirect" title="Computer user">user's</a> access only to their <a href="Home_directory" title="Home directory">home directory</a> or project directory, thus isolating their activities from all other users. In early versions of Unix, the root directory was the home directory of the <a href="Root_user" class="mw-redirect" title="Root user">root user</a>, but modern Unix usually uses another directory such as <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r886049734">

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</style><span class="monospaced">/root</span> for this purpose.

</p><p>In keeping with <a href="Unix_philosophy" title="Unix philosophy">Unix philosophy</a>, Unix systems treat directories as a type of file.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Caveats include not being able to write to a directory file except indirectly by creating, renaming, and removing file system objects in the directory and only being able to read from a directory file using directory-specific library routines and <a href="System_call" title="System call">system calls</a> that return records, not a byte-stream.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Folder_metaphor">Folder metaphor</h3></div>

<p>The name <i>folder</i>, presenting an analogy to the <a href="File_folder" title="File folder">file folder</a> used in offices, and used in a hierarchical file system design for the <a href="Electronic_Recording_Machine%2C_Accounting" title="Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting">Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting</a> (ERMA) Mark 1 published in 1958<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> as well as by <a href="Xerox_Star" title="Xerox Star">Xerox Star</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> is used in almost all modern <a href="Operating_system" title="Operating system">operating systems</a>' desktop environments. Folders are often depicted with <a href="Computer_icon" class="mw-redirect" title="Computer icon">icons</a> that visually resemble physical file folders.

</p><p>There is a difference between a <i>directory</i>, which is a <a href="File_system" title="File system">file system</a> concept, and the <a href="Graphical_user_interface" title="Graphical user interface">graphical user interface</a> metaphor that is used to represent it (a <i>folder</i>). For example, <a href="Microsoft_Windows" title="Microsoft Windows">Microsoft Windows</a> uses the concept of <a href="Special_folder" title="Special folder">special folders</a> to help present the contents of the computer to the user in a fairly consistent way that frees the user from having to deal with absolute directory paths, which can vary between versions of Windows, and between individual installations. Many operating systems also have the concept of "smart folders" or <a href="Virtual_folder" title="Virtual folder">virtual folders</a> that reflect the results of a file system search or other operation. These folders do not represent a directory in the file hierarchy. Many <a href="Email_client" title="Email client">email clients</a> allow the creation of folders to organize email. These folders have no corresponding representation in the filesystem structure.

</p><p>If one is referring to a <i>container of documents</i>, the term <i>folder</i> is more appropriate. The term <i>directory</i> refers to the way a structured list of document files and folders are stored on the computer. The distinction can be due to the way a directory is accessed; on Unix systems, <span class="monospaced">/usr/bin/</span> is usually referred to as a directory when viewed in a <a href="Command_line" class="mw-redirect" title="Command line">command line</a> <a href="Command-line_interface" title="Command-line interface">console</a>, but if accessed through a graphical <a href="File_manager" title="File manager">file manager</a>, users may sometimes call it a folder.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Lookup_cache">Lookup cache</h2></div>

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<p>Operating systems that support hierarchical filesystems (practically all modern ones) implement a form of <a href="Cache_(computing)" title="Cache (computing)">caching</a> to <a href="Random-access_memory" title="Random-access memory">RAM</a> of recent <a href="Path_(computing)" title="Path (computing)">path</a> lookups. In the <a href="Unix" title="Unix">Unix</a> world, this is usually called <b>Directory Name Lookup Cache</b> (DNLC), although it is called <b>dcache</b> on <a href="Linux" title="Linux">Linux</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-dlnc_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-dlnc-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>For local filesystems, cache entries normally expire only under pressure from other more recent entries. For <a href="Distributed_file_system" class="mw-redirect" title="Distributed file system">network file systems</a> a <a href="Cache_coherence" title="Cache coherence">coherence mechanism</a> is necessary to ensure that entries have not been invalidated by other clients.<sup id="cite_ref-dlnc_7-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-dlnc-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<ul><li><a href="File_folder" title="File folder">File folder</a></li></ul>

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<dl><dt>Concepts</dt></dl>

<ul><li><a href="Directory_structure" title="Directory structure">Directory structure</a></li>

<li><a href="Filename" title="Filename">Filename</a></li>

<li><a href="Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard" title="Filesystem Hierarchy Standard">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</a></li>

<li><a href="Home_directory" title="Home directory">Home directory</a></li>

<li><a href="Root_directory" title="Root directory">Root directory</a></li>

<li><a href="Virtual_folder" title="Virtual folder">Virtual folder</a></li>

<li><a href="Working_directory" title="Working directory">Working directory</a></li></ul>

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<dl><dt>Commands</dt></dl>

<ul><li><a href="Cd_(command)" title="Cd (command)">cd (command)</a></li>

<li><a href="Chroot" title="Chroot">chroot</a></li>

<li><a href="Dir_(command)" title="Dir (command)">dir (command)</a></li>

<li><a href="Mkdir" title="Mkdir">mkdir</a></li>

<li><a href="Pushd_and_popd" title="Pushd and popd">pushd and popd</a></li>

<li><a href="Tree_(command)" title="Tree (command)">tree (command)</a></li></ul>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite class="citation book cs1">"Chapter 1: Tutorial". <i>Using The AMIGA Workbench</i>. Commodore-Amiga. July 1991. p. 46. <q>The path specifies the disk name, or location, and all of the drawers that lead to the specified file.</q></cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFLeonard2018" class="citation web cs1">Leonard, Thomas (2018-10-02). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://specifications.freedesktop.org/shared-mime-info-spec/shared-mime-info-spec-latest.html#idm45530160423200">"Shared MIME-info Database"</a>. <a href="X_Desktop_Group" class="mw-redirect" title="X Desktop Group">X Desktop Group</a>. Non-regular files<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2023-03-13</span></span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120310211947/http://www.bga.org/~lessem/psyc5112/usail/concepts/filesystems/everything-is-a-file.html">"Everything is a File"</a>. <i>Behavior Genetics Association</i>. c. 2002. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bga.org/~lessem/psyc5112/usail/concepts/filesystems/everything-is-a-file.html">the original</a> on March 10, 2012<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">April 30,</span> 2021</span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/readdir.3.html">"readdir(3) — Linux manual page"</a>. The Linux man-pages project. 2021-03-22<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">November 27,</span> 2022</span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFBarnard_IIIFein1958" class="citation book cs1">Barnard III, G. A.; Fein, L. (1958). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/afips/1958/5053/00/50530059-abs.html"><i>Organization and Retrieval of Records Generated in a Large-Scale Engineering Project</i></a>. pp. <span class="nowrap">59–</span>63. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1109%2FAFIPS.1958.75">10.1109/AFIPS.1958.75</a>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn4vC80Pv6Q/">""Xerox Star User Interface (1982)""</a>. <i>YouTube</i>. 28 August 2009. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/Cn4vC80Pv6Q">Archived</a> from the original on 2021-12-21<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 November</span> 2014</span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-dlnc-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-dlnc_7-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-dlnc_7-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/nfs-perf/results/cel/dnlc.html">"Close-To-Open Cache Consistency in the Linux NFS Client"</a>. Citi.umich.edu<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 November</span> 2014</span>.</cite></span>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

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<div class="side-box-text plainlist">Wikimedia Commons has media related to <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:File_system_directories" class="extiw external" title="commons:Category:File system directories">File system directories</a></span>.</div></div>

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<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.linfo.org/directory.html">Definition of directory</a> by The Linux Information Project (LINFO)</li></ul>

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</style><div id="Computer_files91" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="Computer_file" title="Computer file">Computer files</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Types</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Binary_file" title="Binary file">Binary file</a> / <a href="Text_file" title="Text file">text file</a></li>

<li><a href="File_format" title="File format">File format</a>

<ul><li><a href="List_of_file_formats" title="List of file formats">List of file formats</a></li>

<li><a href="List_of_file_signatures" title="List of file signatures">File signatures</a></li>

<li><a href="Magic_number_(programming)" title="Magic number (programming)">Magic number</a></li>

<li><a href="Open_file_format" title="Open file format">Open file formats</a></li>

<li><a href="Proprietary_file_format" title="Proprietary file format">Proprietary file formats</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Metafile" class="mw-redirect" title="Metafile">Metafile</a></li>

<li><a href="Sidecar_file" title="Sidecar file">Sidecar file</a></li>

<li><a href="Sparse_file" title="Sparse file">Sparse file</a></li>

<li><a href="System_file" title="System file">System file</a></li>

<li><a href="Temporary_file" title="Temporary file">Temporary file</a></li>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Properties</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Filename" title="Filename">Filename</a>

<ul><li><a href="8.3_filename" title="8.3 filename">8.3 filename</a></li>

<li><a href="Long_filename" title="Long filename">Long filename</a></li>

<li><a href="Filename_mangling" title="Filename mangling">Filename mangling</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Filename_extension" title="Filename extension">Filename extension</a>

<ul><li><a href="List_of_filename_extensions" title="List of filename extensions">List of filename extensions</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="File_attribute" title="File attribute">File attribute</a>

<ul><li><a href="Extended_file_attributes" title="Extended file attributes">Extended file attributes</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Hidden_file_and_hidden_directory" title="Hidden file and hidden directory">Hidden file / Hidden directory</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Organisation</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="NTFS_links" title="NTFS links">NTFS links</a></li>

<li><a href="Temporary_folder" title="Temporary folder">Temporary folder</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Directory_structure" title="Directory structure">Directory structure</a></li>

<li><a href="File_system" title="File system">File system</a>

<ul><li><a href="Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard" title="Filesystem Hierarchy Standard">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</a></li>

<li><a href="Grid_file_system" title="Grid file system">Grid file system</a></li>

<li><a href="Semantic_file_system" title="Semantic file system">Semantic file system</a></li></ul></li>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="File_operation" class="mw-redirect" title="File operation">Operations</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<li><a href="Close_(system_call)" title="Close (system call)">Close</a></li>

<li><a href="Write_(system_call)" title="Write (system call)">Write</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Linking</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="File_descriptor" title="File descriptor">File descriptor</a></li>

<li><a href="Shortcut_(computing)" title="Shortcut (computing)">Shortcut</a>

<ul><li><a href="Alias_(Mac_OS)" title="Alias (Mac OS)">Alias</a></li>

<li><a href="Shadow_(OS/2)" title="Shadow (OS/2)">Shadow</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Symbolic_link" title="Symbolic link">Symbolic link</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Management</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Backup" title="Backup">Backup</a></li>

<li><a href="File_comparison" title="File comparison">File comparison</a></li>

<li><a href="File_copying" title="File copying">File copying</a></li>

<li><a href="Data_compression" title="Data compression">Data compression</a></li>

<li><a href="File_manager" title="File manager">File manager</a>

<ul><li><a href="Comparison_of_file_managers" title="Comparison of file managers">Comparison of file managers</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="File_system_fragmentation" title="File system fragmentation">File system fragmentation</a></li>

<li><a href="File-system_permissions" title="File-system permissions">File-system permissions</a></li>

<li><a href="File_transfer" title="File transfer">File transfer</a>

<ul><li><a href="File_sharing" title="File sharing">File sharing</a></li>

<li><a href="File_synchronization" title="File synchronization">File synchronization</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="File_verification" title="File verification">File verification</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-07-27" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Directory_(computing)&oldid=1302779557">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

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