To change from PERSONAL back to WORDPROC, you can use the special symbol . . (two periods). The . . symbol always designates the parent directory. In other words, you can type:

CD . .

Using Pathnames

Apathname tells MS-DOS how to find its way to the directory you want to access. There are two basic types of pathnames: relative and absolute. A relative pathname tells MS-DOS how to find its way to the desired directory from the current default directory. An absolute pathname tells MS-DOS how to find its way to the desired directory from the root directory.

Here is an example of an absolute pathname:

\WORDPROC\PERSONAL

The backslash at the beginning of this pathname tells MS-DOS to start at the root directory, proceed down the directory tree to WORDPROC, then continue down the tree to PERSONAL.

Here is an example of a relative pathname:

SALES

Because this pathname does not begin with a backslash, MS-DOS assumes that the starting point of the path is the current, default directory. This pathname thus tells MS-DOS to find a directory named SALES that is a subdirectory in the current default directory. Using the example above, you would have to be logged onto the SPDSHEET directory for this pathname to be valid.

Relative pathnames can tell MS-DOS to move upward in the directory tree as well as downward. The symbol . . in a pathname tells MS-DOS to move upward one level in the tree.

Using MS-DOS With Your Computer 4-19