Directory Structures

Purpose of a file system

Let’s continue introducing the Unix environment and Bash with a file system. A file system is a software that dictates how to store and read data from disks. It covers the following topics:

• The API to access data on the disk that programs can use.
• Universal way for accessing different storage devices.
• Physical operations on the disk storage.

Let’s look at the differences between the directory structure in Unix and Windows.

Directory structure for Windows

There is an address bar at the top of the Windows Explorer window. It displays the absolute path to the current directory. An absolute path shows the place of the file system object regardless of the current directory.

Another way to specify the file system object place is using the relative path. It shows us how to reach the object from the current directory.

A directory is a file system cataloging structure. It can contain files and other directories. Windows terminology calls it a folder. Both names mean the same kind of file system object.

The figure below shows an Explorer window. The address bar equals This PC > Local Disk (C:) > msys64 there. It matches the C:\msys64 absolute path. So, we see the contents of the msys64 directory on the C drive in the Explorer window.