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Definition: path


(1) In communications, the route between any two nodes. Same as "line," "channel," "link" or "circuit."

(2) (Path) A photo sharing service intended as a companion to social networks. Introduced in 2010, Path was acquired by Kakao, a South Korea-based Internet company in 2015 but was discontinued in 2018.

(3) In database management, the route from one table to another, such as from customers to orders.

(4) A selected area in an image. See clipping path.

(5) A list of folders that should be searched to locate executable files run from the command line. See Path environment variable.

(6) The route to a file on a storage device (hard disk or SSD). The path shows the hierarchy of folders and subfolders (directories and subdirectories) starting at an origin point called the "root." The following examples show how the path is expressed on a command line to the MYLIFE.TXT file in the STORIES subfolder located within the JOE folder.

In DOS/Windows
The JOE folder is in the C: drive:
    c:\joe\stories\mylife.txt


In Unix/Linux/Mac
The drive would already have been selected:
    /joe/stories/mylife.txt


The Following Examples
The following examples are from the early Windows version of this encyclopedia when the software was installed as a top-level folder off the root of the C: drive. For more details on the folder hierarchy in Windows, see Win Folder organization.










File/Folder Hierarchy
These are Explorer views of the Encyclopedia folder (CDE) from an early version of Windows. They show the path starting with C: along with the backslash delimiters. Subsequent versions of Windows replaced backslashes with arrows and blank spaces in between to be less programmer oriented.