{"id":4505,"date":"2013-08-13T16:14:05","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T16:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/root\/"},"modified":"2013-08-13T16:14:05","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T16:14:05","slug":"root","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root","title":{"rendered":"Root"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_root_mean\">What Does Root Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A root is defined in the computer world as the top-level directory of a file system. Top-level directory means that all the other directories &#8211; including subdirectories and the files they contain &#8211; are included. The root directory is designated by a forward slash (&quot;\/&quot;) or backward slash (&quot;&quot;) depending on the system in question.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_root\">Techopedia Explains Root<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The term &quot;root&quot; was adapted from a tree root because this data structure looks like an upside-down tree. The folders in the tree structure are the branches and the files themselves represent leaves. Because it is an upside down tree structure, the root is shown at the top of the system directories with all the others spanning down and outward from it.<\/p>\n<p> In a Windows-based system, &quot;C:&quot; depicts the root directory of the C drive. However, on Macintosh and Unix based systems, a simple forward slash depicts the root directory. Root directories are not limited to operating systems; they are also used in URL addressing, which shows the domain name as the top level or root. This is followed by a forward slash to denote different pages or directories. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Root Mean? A root is defined in the computer world as the top-level directory of a file system. Top-level directory means that all the other directories &#8211; including subdirectories and the files they contain &#8211; are included. The root directory is designated by a forward slash (&quot;\/&quot;) or backward slash (&quot;&quot;) depending on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[254,227,222,230],"class_list":["post-4505","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-data-centers","definitioncat-data-management","definitioncat-database","definitioncat-privacy-and-compliance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.8 (Yoast SEO v23.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Root? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Root and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Root\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Root and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Root\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-13T16:14:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-13T16:14:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root\"},\"wordCount\":197,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5464\/root\",\"name\":\"What is a Root? 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