Computer File Management - Concept of The Hierarchy of Files

Concept of The Hierarchy of Files

Files can also be managed based on their location on a storage device. They are stored in a storage medium in binary form. Physically, the data is placed in a not-so-well organized structure, due to fragmentation. However, the grouping of files into directories (for operating systems such as DOS, Unix, Linux) or folders (for the Mac OS and Windows) is done by changing an index of file information known as the File Allocation Table (NTFS for recent versions of Windows) or Master File Table (depending on operating system used). In this index, the physical location of a particular file on the storage medium is stored, as well as its position in the hierarchy of directories (as we see it using commands such as DIR, LS and programs such as Explorer, Finder).

On Unix/Linux machines the hierarchy is:

  • The root directory (/)
    • Directories (/usr "user" or /dev "device")
      • Sub-directories (/usr/local)
        • Files: data, devices, links, etc. (/usr/local/readme.txt or /dev/hda1, which is the hard disk device)

For DOS/Windows the hierarchy (along with examples):

  • Drive (C:)
    • Directory/Folder (C:\My Documents)
      • Sub-directory/Sub-folder (C:\My Documents\My Pictures)
        • File (C:\My Documents\My Pictures\VacationPhoto.jpg)

Commands such as:

  • Unix/Linux: cp, mv
  • DOS: copy, move
  • Windows: the Cut/Copy/Paste commands in the Edit menu of Explorer

can be used to manage (copy or move) the files to and from other directories.

Read more about this topic:  Computer File Management

Famous quotes containing the words concept of, concept, hierarchy and/or files:

    “The heritage of the American Revolution is forgotten, and the American government, for better and for worse, has entered into the heritage of Europe as though it were its patrimony—unaware, alas, of the fact that Europe’s declining power was preceded and accompanied by political bankruptcy, the bankruptcy of the nation-state and its concept of sovereignty.”
    —Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)

    “Obscenity is a moral concept in the verbal arsenal of the Establishment, which abuses the term by applying it, not to expressions of its own morality, but to those of another.”
    —Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)

    “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
    —Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990)

    “The good husband finds method as efficient in the packing of fire-wood in a shed, or in the harvesting of fruits in the cellar, as in Peninsular campaigns or the files of the Department of State.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)