Paths

A path specifies the location of a file or
directory (folder) on a computer. A simple path looks like this:



/user/jones/notes



The components of a path are separators (the "/" character) and file or
directory names. There is always a "/" at the begining of a path to mark the top
level or root directory. Each subsequent "/" in the path indicates the next
level down in the computers directory structure. The last file or directory name in the
path is the item that the path leads to. The example "/user/jones/notes"
specifies that there is a file named notes that resides in a folder named jones that
resides in a folder named user.

URL's

A URL specifies the location of a file on the
World Wide Web. A simple URL looks like this:

http://www.perlmasters.com/

A more complex URL looks like this:

http://www.perlmasters.com/resources/helppage.html

The major components of a URL are the

Protocol - Indicates which internet service
or protocol will handle the file. (i.e. ftp, http)

Domain Name - A domain name contains the name
you would lookup in WHOIS.  

A domain name does NOT contain http:// or
www. 

www is what is called an ALIAS. 

Thus my domain name is not
http://www.superscripts.com or www.perlmasters.com. 

My DOMAIN NAME is superscripts.com

Network Location - A unique name which
identifies an Internet server or Internet domain.

A network location has two or more parts
separated by periods.

Path - The folder containing the file.

File Name - The name of the file.

In the first example
http://www.perlmasters.com/ no path or file name is specified. When no path is specified
after the domain name the file resides in the root directory of the domain. When no file
name is specified the file is generally assumed to be index.htm. Index.htm or index.html
is the default file name for HTML pages.