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:

    “Behind the concept of woman’s strangeness is the idea that a woman may do anything: she is below society, not bound by its law, unpredictable; an attribute given to every member of the league of the unfortunate.”
    —Christina Stead (1902–1983)

    “I think that Richard Nixon will go down in history as a true folk hero, who struck a vital blow to the whole diseased concept of the revered image and gave the American virtue of irreverence and skepticism back to the people.”
    —William Burroughs (b. 1914)

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

    “But some who this blithe mood present,
    As on in lightsome files they fare,
    Shall die experienced ere three days be spent—
    Perish, enlightened by the vollied glare;
    Or shame survive, and, like to adamant,
    Thy after shock, Manassas, share.”
    —Herman Melville (1819–1891)