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 mu…


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sonu Kumar Kushwaha

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:

/home
//home
///home

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.


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sonu Kumar Kushwaha


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