root

Jun 11 2026

---

The root directory is the top-level directory of a filesystem — everything else lives inside it. Think of it as the trunk of a tree from which all branches (folders and files) grow.

---

On Linux/macOS it's represented by a single forward slash /. Every path starts from here:

/
├── home/
│   └── alice/
├── etc/
└── var/

On Windows each drive has its own root — C:\, D:\, etc.

---

Key Things to Know

• The root directory has no parent — it's the only directory that contains itself conceptually.
• On Linux/macOS, only the root user has write access to / by default.
• Everything is under root — external drives, USB sticks, network shares — all mounted as subdirectories inside /.

---

Root Directory vs. Root User vs. Root's Home

These three things share the name but are different:

Term	Meaning
/	The top of the filesystem
root user	The superuser/admin account
/root	The home folder of the root user

---

---