absolute path

Absolute paths are called so because they refer to the very specific location, including the domain name. The absolute path to a web element is also often referred to as the URL.

Absolute path contains the root directory and all other subdirectories that contain a file or folder.

Absolute path differs from a relative path. Relative Path is a path to a given file or directory starting from another file or directory.

Below are some examples of absolute and relative paths.

C:Windowscalc.exe

calc.exe

In the above example, the absolute path contains the full path to the file and not just the file as seen in the non absolute path. In this example, if you were in a directory that did not contain "calc.exe" you would get an error message. However, when using an absolute path, you can be in any directory and the computer would know where to open the "calc.exe" file.

/home/users/cyourdomain/public_html/cgi-bin

Linux non absolute path (relative path):
public_html/cgi-bin

In this example, the absolute path contains the full path to the cgi-bin directory on that computer. Since most users do not want to see the full absolute path to their personal directory, the relative path is shown. Use the pwd command to see the absolute path.

How to download a template

how-download-template.html

The first difference you notice between the two different types of links is that absolute paths always include the domain name of the website, including www., whereas relative links only point to a file or a file path. When a user clicks a relative link, the browser takes them to that location on the current site.