Operating System Fundamentals
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best answers from c, Lesson 2 C# Windows Forms
| Figure 6.4 Hierarchical File Structure in Windows XP The location of a file in a directory on a computer is referred to as its path. When we give the location of a file, we can provide it as either an absolute path or a relative path. An absolute Operating System Fundamentals 84 path provides the complete path to the file from the root level. For instance, in the example described above for folders you created for an operating systems course, the absolute path to that folder might be C:\Documents and Settings\Users\User My Documents\Operating System Fundamentals\Assignments\Assignment_1.doc This path provides the absolute location in the hierarchical file structure of a Microsoft Word document called Assignment_1.doc. We could also describe the location of this file using a relative path. A relative path is simply the path to a file from a predetermined relative level. For instance, we could provide the relative path for Assignment doc as My Documents\Operating System Fundamentals\Assignments\Assignment doc Alternately, we could provide the relative path from the course directory Operating System Fundamentals\Assignments\Assignment doc Windows XP and Vista provide tools for navigating and managing files and folders. The most common tool is Windows Explorer, which is shown in Figure 6.4 (above. Windows Explorer shows the hierarchical directory structure of the folders in the left pane, and shows the contents of the currently selected folder in the right pane. The hierarchical file structure for in Windows Explorer usually shows shortcuts to the Desktop and the users My Documents folders at the top of the left pane, followed by Local Disk C which is the root level of the primary hard disk or hard disk partition. Windows Explorer also allows the user to specify how information about files will be displayed in the right pane. For instance, you can show just icons or tiles for each file (with a graphical depiction of the file type. You could also list all of the files, along with their associated sizes, attributes and their creation and modification dates. In addition, Windows Explorer provides the user with the ability to manipulate files and folders. Users can use Explorer to rename, delete, copy, paste, move or even create new files and folders. File attributes allow the user control access to files, as well as the archiving and backup of files. The most common file attributes in Windows are Read Only – the file can be read, but not modified. Hidden – the file is hidden from other users (usually used to hide critical operating system files so that they are not accidently modified by users. Archive – the file is marked for archiving, so that it will be included when the next file system backup operation is carried out. Index – the file is indexed in a database so that it will be easier for the operating system to find and retrieve the file from the disk when it is needed. Of course, there are many other advanced attributes in Windows XP and Vista that can beset for particular users or groups of users. Like Windows, Linux also uses a hierarchical file structure. Unlike Windows, the root level in Linux is actually called ―Root.‖ Even when logged into a Linux system as an administrator, the Root directory is usually hidden from the user when using the File Manager tool. As shown in Figure 6.5 (below, when a user is logged in with root level privileges, the Linux File Manager will display a warning to prevent the user from accidentally manipulating critical operating system files. |