DOS path name - technical definition

The route to a file on a DOS or Windows disk. The path name is used whenever it is necessary to type in the location of a file rather than pointing to it with the mouse. The path starts with the drive letter followed by the directory hierarchy and ends with the file name itself. For example:

      DRIVE     DIRECTORIES     FILE NAME

This is often called the "full path name," which defines the entire route, or path, to a specific file.

If you are not familiar with the use of the drive letters, colons and backslashes used in the following examples, this is all described in detail in DOS abc's and DOS directories.

The following example is the full path name to the SALES.DBF file that resides in the DBASE directory on the C: drive:

         c:\dbase\sales.dbf

The full path to a file named BUDGET.WK1 in the root directory on the D: drive looks like this:

         d:\budget.wk1

Sometimes, you cannot tell whether a path name is a directory path or a full path name to a file. The following example could be both. LETTER could be a subdirectory attached to the WP directory, or it could be a document within the WP directory.

          c:\wp\letter

If LETTER was a document in the LETTER directory, its full path name would be:

          c:\letter\letter

Some Things are Implicit!

If you only have a C: drive, the C: is implicit. You can often omit the C: from the path name, especially if you are entering a path to call up a program or file in the current session only. However, for path names that are saved with an application, you are better off entering the full path name starting with the drive letter. If you subsequently add a D: drive, previously saved path references may conflict.

See DOS directories, DOS Path, DOS AUTOEXEC.BAT and DOS abc's.