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.


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Historical Background

This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated
to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. 
as a contribution to computer science knowledge.  
This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL
and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. 
Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970),
renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership
of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture 
for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems 
incorporated Multics principles.
Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 
as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. .

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Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies
and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining
to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission.
    Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS
    All Rights Reserved