Hopefully "ScriptingTipsAndTricks" helps you with your batch file or vbscript scripting :-)\IntroductionAbsolute & Relative File or Directory Names

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Absolute & Relative File or Directory Names

There are two types of folders and files as follows:

1. An absolute filename contains a drive (or UNC server name) as well as a path so that the location is fully qualified.

   For example with "C:\TMP\SomeFile.txt", you know that "SomeFile.txt" is in the "C:\TMP" folder.

2. A relative filename on the other hand is missing drive or folder information and so its alsolute filename is dependant on the Current Directory or Drive.

   Without knowing the current directory/folder you can't tell where the file is, some examples:

   • C:\SomeFile.txt
   • \TMP\SomeFile.txt
   • ..\SomeFile.txt
   • SomeFile.txt

There are some special folder names that have specific meanings in relative paths:

• .. (dot dot)
  This represents the previous (higher level) directory, the following filenames refer to the same file:
  • SomeFile.txt
  • SUBDIR\..\SomeFile.txt
  • ..\SomeFile.txt (when in "C:\TMP\SUBDIR")

• . (single dot)
  This represents the current directory, the following two filenames refer to the same file:
  • SomeFile.txt
  • .\SomeFile.txt

This Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces page has some very useful file related information (including what the "\\?\" file prefix does (allow you to handle very long paths).

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