The Role of the Slash (/) in Linux
The Role of the Slash (/) in Linux
In Linux and other Unix-like systems, / is the directory separator — everything starts from the root directory /.
Examples: /etc, /var, /home.
Now here’s the fun part:
According to the POSIX standard, Linux treats multiple consecutive slashes as a single slash — except possibly at the very beginning of a path.
That means:
All point to the same directory.
The One Special Case
Some Unix variants (like older AIX or NFS systems) use // at the start of a path to indicate network namespaces or special mounts, similar to how Windows uses \\server\share.
Modern Linux usually ignores this distinction.
