Path (computing) - Representations of Paths By Operating System and Shell | Representations Paths Operating System Shell

Representations of Paths By Operating System and Shell

Operating System	Shell	Root Directory	Directory Separator	Current Directory	Parent Directory	Home Directory	Examples
Unix-like OS	Unix shell	`/`	`/`	`.`	`..`	`~`	`/home/user/docs/Letter.txt` `./inthisdir` `../../greatgrandparent` `~/.rcinfo`
DOS	COMMAND.COM	`\` or `\\\`	`/` or `\` (note: command.com does not treat / as a directory separator)	`.`	`..`		`C:\USER\DOCS\LETTER.TXT` `A:PICTURE.JPG` `\\SERVER01\USER\DOCS\LETTER.TXT`
OS/2	cmd.exe	`\`	`/` or `\`	`.`	`..`		`C:\user\docs\Letter.txt` `A:Picture.jpg`
Microsoft Windows	cmd.exe	`/` or `\` or `\\\` note: for CD command, / treated as relative path (same as .\)	`/` or `\` (note: for CD command, / treated as relative path (same as .\))	`.`	`..`		`C:\user\docs\Letter.txt` `A:Picture.jpg` `\\Server01\user\docs\Letter.txt`
Microsoft Windows	Windows PowerShell	`/` or `\`or `\\\` or `\`	`/` or `\`	`.`	`..`		`C:\user\docs\Letter.txt` `\\Server01\user\docs\Letter.txt` `UserDocs:/Letter.txt` `Variable:PSVersionTable` `Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\` `Microsoft.PowerShell.Security\Certificate::CurrentUser\`
TOPS-20	DCL		`.`				`PS:LETTER.TXT,4`
RSX-11	DCL						`DR0:LETTER.TXT;4`
OpenVMS	DCL	or `]:::`	`.`				`SYS$SYSDEVICE:PHOTO.JPG` `GEIN::LETTER.TXT;4`
Classic Mac OS		`:`	`:`	`:`	`::`		`Macintosh HD:Documents:Letter` `:fileincurrentdir` `::fileinparent` `:::fileingrandparent`
ProDOS	AppleSoft BASIC	`//`	`/`				`/SCHOOL.DISK/APPLEWORKS/MY.REPORT` `FLIGHT.SIMULATOR,D2`
AmigaOS	Amiga CLI / AmigaShell	`:`	`/`	`.`	`/`		`Workbench:Utilities/MultiView` `DF0:S/Startup-Sequence` `S:Startup-Sequence` `TCP:en.wikipedia.com/80`
RISC OS	Task window	`:]$` note: &, % and @ can also be used to reference the root of the current user, the library and the current (working) directory respectively.	`.`	`@`	`^`	`&`	`ADFS::MyDrive.$.Documents.Letter` `Net#MainServer::DataDrive.$.Main.sy10823` `LanMan::WindowsC.$.Pictures.Japan/gif` `NFS:&.!Choices` `ADFS:%.IfThere` `@.inthisdir` `^.^.greatgrandparent` When filesystems with filename extensions are mounted, '.' characters are changed to '/', as in the Japan/gif example above.
Symbian OS	File manager	`\`	`\`				`\user\docs\Letter.txt`
Domain/OS	Shell	`//`	`/`
MenuetOS	CMD	`/`	`/`
Stratus VOS	VOS command-line interpreter	`%#>`	`>`		`<`
NonStop Kernel	TACL Tandem Advanced Command Language	No root	`.`		No parent directory		`\NODE.$DISK.SUBVOL.FILE` `\NODE.$DEVICE` `\NODE.$DEVICE.#SUBDEV.QUALIFIER`
CP/M	CCP		no subdirectories	no subdirectories	no parent	no subdirectories	`A:LETTER.TXT`

Japanese and Korean versions of Windows may often display the '¥' character or the '₩' character instead of the directory separator. In such cases the code for a backslash is being drawn as these characters. Very early versions of MS-DOS replaced the backslash with these glyphs on the display to make it possible to display them by programs that only understood 7-bit ASCII (other characters such as the square brackets were replaced as well, see ISO 646, Windows Codepage 932 (Japanese Shift JIS), and Codepage 949 (Korean)). Although even the first version of Windows supported the 8-bit ISO-8859-1 character set which has the Yen sign at U+00A5, and modern versions of Windows supports Unicode which has the Won sign at U+20A9, much software will continue to display backslashes found in ASCII files this way to preserve backwards compatibility.

Mac OS X, as a derivative of UNIX, uses UNIX paths internally. However, to preserve compatibility for software and familiarity for users, many portions of the GUI switch "/" typed by the user to ":" internally, and switch them back when displaying filenames (a ":" entered by the user is also changed into "/" but the inverse translation does not happen).

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