Relative Paths

A path is relative if it describes the location of a file or folder as it relates to the current folder. If you are in a folder and you want to move down the folder tree, you don't need to type the absolute path name. You can just type the path starting with the name of the next folder in the path. If a path does not begin with a slash, it is a relative path. For example, if the current folder is /usr/dt and you want to move to the folder /usr/dt/config/letters, you would use the following relative path:

config/letters

Two special folder names are useful when specifying relative paths. The "." folder (sometimes called "dot") represents the current folder. The ".." folder (sometimes called "dot-dot") represents the parent folder--the folder one level up in the folder hierarchy. For example, if your current folder is /usr/dt/config, then the relative path to the Dtwm file becomes:

../app-defaults/language/Dtwm

because the file is in the /usr/dt/app-defaults/language folder, one level above the current folder and in the app-defaults/language subfolder.