directory file: See directory -- a directory is a special kind of file which creates a named place to store other files or directories.

For me, this was sort of a surprise to think about -- I had a gut level understanding of what a directory was, that it created a named area to store other files and directories, but I never thought about it also being a file itself. Interesting. I guess it would not have to be a file -- it could have been something like a partition table, a FAT? or the inode structure on a Linux filesystem.

Contributors

• RandyKramer - 28 Jan 2002
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