     All "segments" and "directories" in Multics have at least one name.
These names are called "entrynames." Entrynames alone, however, are often not
sufficient to locate items stored in the system.  If the segment or directory
you wish to use is catalogued in your "working directory," then the entryname
alone will be enough to locate it.  For example, if you want to go to a
directory immediately below the one you're in, giving the entryname to the
change_wdir command will do:

change_wdir directory_2

     But when you want to use segments and directories that are not in your
working directory, you must use either a relative or an absolute pathname.  A
relative pathname locates a segment or directory relative to the working
directory by listing all of the directories between it and the working
directory.  For example, if you want to print a segment located in a directory
one level below your working directory, you could use the relative pathname
with the print command:

print lower_dir>segment

     An absolute pathname, on the other hand, lists all the directories that
lead from the "root directory" to the item being identified.  For example, the
absolute pathname of the segment shown above might look like:

>udd>Mktg>Jones>lower_dir>segment

Because absolute pathnames begin at the root, they all begin with the
greater-than character (>), whereas relative pathnames begin without the
greater-than because the first entryname in the path is catalogued in the
working directory.
