Understanding the Path System: Windows vs. Linux Explained

Okay, before discussing anything, let's first understand what comes to your mind when I say "file" or "folder."

A file is like a box or container of data such as audio, video, or text. A collection of files can be put inside one more container, which is called a folder or directory. That's easy, right? But here's one more thing called:

Symbolic Links

These can't be seen in file explorers, but if you open your bash terminal, you will. When you go to the root directory using cd ~/, you will see all symbolic links.

🕑 14:31  heyashu ~/Desktop/ME/node-js-by-procodrr (master)
🚀 cd ~/
🕑 14:31  heyashu ~
🚀 ls
'3D Objects'/            'My Documents'@                                                                                 ntuser.ini   
 AppData/                 NetHood@                                                                                       OneDrive/    
'Application Data'@       npm-cache/                                                                                     Pictures/    
 Contacts/                NTUSER.DAT                                                                                     PrintHood@   
 Cookies@                 ntuser.dat.LOG1                                                                                Recent@      
 Desktop/                 ntuser.dat.LOG2                                                                               'Saved Games'/
 Documents/               NTUSER.DAT{53b39e87-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TxR.0.regtrans-ms                             Searches/    
 Downloads/               NTUSER.DAT{53b39e87-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TxR.1.regtrans-ms                             SendTo@      
 Favorites/               NTUSER.DAT{53b39e87-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TxR.2.regtrans-ms                            'Start Menu'@ 
 IntelGraphicsProfiles/   NTUSER.DAT{53b39e87-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TxR.blf                                       Templates@   
 Links/                   NTUSER.DAT{53b39e88-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TM.blf                                        Videos/      
'Local Settings'@         NTUSER.DAT{53b39e88-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TMContainer00000000000000000001.regtrans-ms
 Music/                   NTUSER.DAT{53b39e88-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TMContainer00000000000000000002.regtrans-ms

And when you run ls -l, here are a few things to know:

• d stands for directory
• l means symbolic links
• `` indicates regular files

🚀 ls -l
total 9125
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May  8 20:41 '3D Objects'/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May  8 20:40  AppData/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      40 May  8 20:40 'Application Data' -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Roaming'/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May  8 20:41  Contacts/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      68 May  8 20:40  Cookies -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCookies'/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 Sep 26 20:03  Desktop/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 Jun  7 14:02  Documents/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 Sep 26 20:03  Downloads/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May  8 20:41  Favorites/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 Sep 27 00:16  IntelGraphicsProfiles/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May  8 20:41  Links/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      38 May  8 20:40 'Local Settings' -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Local'/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May  8 20:41  Music/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      34 May  8 20:40 'My Documents' -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/Documents'/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      76 May  8 20:40  NetHood -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Network Shortcuts'/   
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May 15 14:44  npm-cache/
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121 3145728 Sep 14 05:09  NTUSER.DAT
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121  991232 May  8 20:40  ntuser.dat.LOG1
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121  786432 May  8 20:40  ntuser.dat.LOG2
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121 1048576 Sep 27 14:31  NTUSER.DAT{53b39e87-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TxR.0.regtrans-ms
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121 1048576 Sep 21 12:19  NTUSER.DAT{53b39e87-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TxR.1.regtrans-ms
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121 1048576 Sep 21 12:19  NTUSER.DAT{53b39e87-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TxR.2.regtrans-ms
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121   65536 Sep 27 14:31  NTUSER.DAT{53b39e87-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TxR.blf
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121   65536 May  8 20:40  NTUSER.DAT{53b39e88-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TM.blf
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121  524288 May  8 20:40  NTUSER.DAT{53b39e88-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TMContainer00000000000000000001.regtrans-ms 
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121  524288 May  8 20:40  NTUSER.DAT{53b39e88-18c4-11ea-a811-000d3aa4692b}.TMContainer00000000000000000002.regtrans-ms 
-rw-r--r-- 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      20 May  8 20:40  ntuser.ini
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 Aug 12 20:14  OneDrive/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 Sep 19 22:52  Pictures/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      76 May  8 20:40  PrintHood -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Printer Shortcuts'/ 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      65 May  8 20:40  Recent -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Recent'/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May  8 20:41 'Saved Games'/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 May  8 20:42  Searches/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      65 May  8 20:40  SendTo -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/SendTo'/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      69 May  8 20:40 'Start Menu' -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu'/      
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      68 May  8 20:40  Templates -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Templates'/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121       0 Sep 26 20:03  Videos/
🕑 14:32  heyashu ~

A symbolic link points to a file or a folder (directory).

Below, if you see l, it indicates that it's pointing to the Templates directory.

lrwxrwxrwx 1 Ashutosh Tiwari 197121      68 May  8 20:40  Templates -> '/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Templates'/

We don't work too much with symbolic links, but if you want to explore more, do some research. Let's move to the path system.

Path System (Windows)

A path refers to the location or route of a directory or file. There are two types of paths. You can go to your VS Code, right-click on any file in the left-side file explorer, and you will get two options: copy relative path and copy absolute path.

1. Relative Path
2. Absolute Path

An absolute path means it will start from the root directory.

C:\Users\Ashutosh Tiwari\Desktop\ME\node-js-by-procodrr\path.js

Relative path ( soemtime stats with ./ )

path.js

and in windows it starts with \ and i unix it starts with /

\ back slash
/ forward slash

And in widnows what is the propblem lets try to understand

const mtPath= 'src\text.js'
console.log("mtPath",mtPath);
// so here if you will try to console in terminal
mtPath src      ext.js

Actually, above you will see \t is pointing to the tab, which is why \ can be dangerous.

\n will point to new lines, and the backslash (\) is a special character in multiple programming languages. That's why in Windows, we use double backslashes \\ in paths.

const mtPath= 'src\\text.js'
console.log("mtPath",mtPath);
// so here if you will try to console in terminal
//src\text.js

But in Unix, it's different.

Path in Unix System

In bash, if you observe, everywhere it uses and gives / (forward slash) because bash simulates the UNIX system and handles everything behind the scenes.

🕑 14:51  heyashu ~/Desktop/ME/node-js-by-procodrr (master)
🚀 pwd
/c/Users/Ashutosh Tiwari/Desktop/ME/node-js-by-procodrr
// see u r in windows but u are getting / forward slash

And read about the cygpath command, what it does, and how in the future you can interchange paths. But don’t worry, we will handle everything.

Now, let's dive into WSL. Type \\WSL$ in the explorer path to open Ubuntu. If you're not getting it, we've already downloaded WSL in Windows. Check the last blog here's the link.

Now, if you create any file and copy the path, it will show the Unix path only, meaning forward slashes will appear in both relative and absolute paths.

I faced so many errors while installing Node.js in WSL and creating files, but once you search and follow the steps properly, you’ll be able to handle everything!

root@DESKTOP-NCVPMH3:/learning# node app
dsdfs
root@DESKTOP-NCVPMH3:/learning# 

In WSL, after typing \\WSL$, I created a folder named "learning" and then an app.js file. And look, it's printing "dsdfs" – yoooo! 🎉

We got Linux, and now the folder and files are running using Node.js perfectly! The path is showing with forward slashes as expected.

I right-clicked on app.js and copied the absolute path – see, forward slashes everywhere!

\\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu\learning\app.js

Lets learn something more

cd . // current folder
cd ..   // parent folder 
cd ../  // parent folder
~/      // moves to home folder
cd ~    // home folder
cat ~/fileName   // read fileName content
cd /   // root directory