You're on assignment part 1/2 for this lesson.

Absolute vs. Relative Paths

We've mostly been dealing with relative filepaths which are paths that take your current directory into account. For example, let's say we have the following directory structure in our filesystem:

vehicles
├── cars
│   ├── fords
│   │   ├── mustang.txt
│   │   └── focus.txt

When inside the top-level vehicles directory, the relative path to the mustang.txt file is:

cars/fords/mustang.txt

However, when we're inside the cars directory, the relative path to the mustang.txt file is just:

fords/mustang.txt

Or when inside the fords directory, just:

mustang.txt

Absolute Paths

An absolute path is a path that starts at the root of the filesystem. On Unix-like systems (macOS/Linux), the root is denoted by a forward slash /. So, if the vehicles directory is in the filesystem root, the absolute path to the mustang.txt file is:

/vehicles/cars/fords/mustang.txt

So, when inside the fords directory, you can use either:

/vehicles/cars/fords/mustang.txt

mustang.txt

to refer to the same file.

Which Should I Use?

It depends.

Relative paths are easier to read and write, and as long as you're in the correct directory (or the directory you expect), they're easier to reason about.

Absolute paths are more explicit. They're useful when you're not sure what directory you're currently in. For example, maybe you're giving someone instructions on how to find a file on their computer. You can't be sure what directory they'll be in when they start following your instructions, so you'll need to use an absolute path.