Absolute and Relative Paths
A path identifies the location of a file or directory.
Absolute Paths
An absolute path always starts from the root directory
/
.It is valid from anywhere on the file system, use it when certain of the location.
Sometimes relative path can be longer than the absolute path, so an absolute path is prefered.
ls /var/log/syslog
# /var/log/syslog is an absolute path to the syslog file
Relative Paths
A relative path starts from the current directory to the resource.
Is generally shorter than an absolute path, used for similar local directory structures, for projects.
cd /var
ls log/syslog
# log/syslog is a relative path
ls ./log/syslog
# Using "." it specifies the commands starts in the current working directory
ls ../home/user/Documents/
# ".." is the parrent of the current working directory
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