A Practical Guide to Red Hat® Linux® 8

Directory and Ordinary Files

Like a family tree, the tree representing the filesystem is usually pictured upside down, with its root at the top. Figures 4-2 and 4-3 show that the tree “grows” downward from the root, with paths connecting the root to each of the other files. At the end of each path is either an ordinary file or a directory file. Ordinary files, frequently just called files, are at the ends of paths that cannot support other paths. Directory files, usually referred to as directories or folders, are the points that other paths can branch off from. (Figures 4-2 and 4-3 show some empty directories.) When you refer to the tree, up is toward the root and down is away from the root. Directories directly connected by a path are called ...