LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Full Path Name

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- - Full Path Name (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/full-path-name-850525/)

What is a full path name?

As opposed to the relative path name, from the current directory, the full path name is the path from /.

Hello Juve_It!

A full path name is the complete(absolute) location of some file or link.

Example of :

Code:

#!/bin/sh/

less /home/some_user/docs/work/todo.txt

less ~/docs/work/todo.txt

See the "/home/some_user/docs/work/todo.txt" thing?
That's a full path on Linux shell.

See the "~/docs/work/todo.txt" thing?
That's a relative path that does exactly the same as the full path but is easier to type and is dependent of your working directory.

On linux a path usually starts with a slash character '/'.

cheers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by coexistance

See the "~/docs/work/todo.txt" thing?
That's a relative path that does exactly the same as the full path but is easier to type and is dependent of your working directory.

Actually that is an aliased path (ie. ~ is an alias for your home directory)

A relative path would be something like:

Code:

rel_path="docs/work/todo.txt"



less $rel_path

Depending on where you execute the script, this will look in the current directory for a directory called 'docs'.

The difference with the above is:

Code:

rel_path="~/docs/work/todo.txt"



less $rel_path

Irrelevant of where you are this will still look in your home path for 'docs' directory.
The real gotcha here is that if someone else executes the script it will look in their home directory

Whereas a full (or absolute) path would be:

Code:

abs_path="/home/some_user/docs/work/todo.txt"



less $rel_path

This will work no matter who calls it or where it is called from (assuming of course you have the permissions to the directory and file)

Ah! A relative path is made with variables!
thanks for pointing it out grail.

And sorry for the original poster.
cheers!

Actually, the '~' thing is only for someone's home dir (that's a fixed convention, not a variable). A relative path in general means not starting at root ie '/', so for eaxmple

../../some/dir

is a relative path; in this case, go up 2 dirs, then down into some/dir.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juve IT (Post 4192954)

What is a full path name?

Rute Tutorial & Exposition is a good tutorial and you will learn a lot.

Just a few more links to aid you to gaining some understanding. Sure some may seem beyond a newbie but you must start somewhere;  

Linux Documentation Project 
 Linux Command Guide 
Utimate Linux Newbie Guide 
LinuxSelfHelp 
Getting Started with Linux 
Bash Beginners Guide 
Bash Reference Manual 
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide 
Linux Home Networking
  
The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!
:hattip: