# Windows Paths
| | |
| --- | --- |
| **Path** | **Description** |
| C:\\Documents\\Newsletters\\Summer2018.pdf | An absolute file path from the root of drive C: |
| 2018\\January.xlsx | A relative path to a file in a subdirectory of the current directory. |
| ..\\Publications\\TravelBrochure.pdf | A relative path to file in a directory that is a peer of the current directory. |
| F:\\Projects\\apilibrary\\apilibrary.sln | An absolute path to a file from the root of drive F: |
A file extension is three or four characters at the end of a filename, such as .DOCX, .PDF or .TXT. File extensions tell you the file type, and which programs can open it. File extensions aren't necessary in MacOS or Linux.
# MacOS and Linux
No drive letters. Everything is treated as a file
* Forward slash, not back slash e.g. /usr/bin/python3 or /etc/os-release
* . Current directory
* .. Parent directory
* ~ Home directory
.filename hidden files have a . at the front
# Windows Shell Commands
cd change directory
* dir display directory contents
* mkdir make directory
* rmdir remove directory
```
c:\Program Files\Emacs>m:
M:\>mkdir hello
M:\>cd hello
M:\hello>cd ..
M:\>rmdir hello
```