What is a file and folder? What is a file and a file system? What is a file and its use.

The concept of a file has a special meaning in any operating system, including the most common system. Anyone who starts learning a computer from scratch comes across these computer terms among the very first ones they learn. What is a file? Let's take an analogy with a person who divides all information into parts for ease of storage, retrieval and use. An example is a library, where each book is united by a common sense of content, has a certain number of pages, its own storage location and is arranged on shelves by genre. The computer operates with various types of information (texts, photographs, videos, etc.) in the form of zeros and ones, understandable only to it. A person cannot perceive information in this form. Therefore, for full mutual understanding, the concept of a file was introduced.

The file and its main properties

A file is a kind of container in which some information is stored. This could be the same text, photograph, film, or a set of data needed for a specific program or the operating system itself. Thus, all programs and data on the computer consist of files. A movie stored on a hard drive or other storage device is a file, two movies are two files. A photo is a file, two photos are two files, etc. By analogy with a library, a hard drive or other media is a kind of storage of files that have their own storage locations, names and sizes. From here we come to the fact that files have certain properties. Basic properties are file name, file size, extension.

File name

To distinguish one file from another, it has a name, which can consist of lowercase or uppercase letters, numbers, or all of them. The file name should not begin with a dot; also, avoid using square and curly brackets in the file name; special characters / \ | are not allowed. : * ? “< >. If you incorrectly name files using these characters, the operating system will refuse to accept the name, indicating an error. The file name should not contain more than 255 characters, although 10-30 characters are sufficient.

Who or what names the files? Names are given by programs and the operating system itself for their service data, which cannot be renamed to avoid malfunctions in their operation. You name the files that you create using programs yourself, adhering to the above restrictions. For example, having created a test document in any text editor, you can name it “my document” or something else.

Can there be two or more identical file names in the same location on a storage device, and if so, how can we figure out what information is stored in them? Yes they can, but in the case of different expansions.

File extension

The extension is part of the file name and is indicated after the dot. Example:

Readme.txt
Readme.avi
Readme.jpeg
Readme.mp3

There are the same names, but with different extensions and they can be in the same place. The file extension is necessary so that the computer knows which program it needs to process the file with. If you double-click on a file with a txt extension, Windows will launch Notepad and automatically load the text contained in the file into it.

In addition, by looking at the extension, the user will quickly understand what kind of information is stored in the file. For ease of understanding, take the analogy of a person, imagine that the extension is a surname. Those. Having a list of people with the same names, you can distinguish them by last name. The most common extensions you will work with are:

.txt - a simple text document;
.doc, .docx, .docm, .rtx - formatted text document;
.xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .ods - spreadsheets;
.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png - graphic;
.mp3, .ogg, .wma - audio files;
.mpeg, .264, .avi - video;
.rar, .zip, .tg - archives;
.exe, .cmd, .bat - executable files.

The extension is also called the file type. The extension register does not matter: txt and TXT are the same extension.

file size

Each file takes up space on your hard drive or any other storage device. The space occupied is determined by the file size, which is measured in units of information - bytes, kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes, and in the future possibly in terabytes. An analogy can be given with weight: gram, kilogram, centner, ton. By the way, you can often hear in computer jargon “a movie (game) weighs 2 gigs.” This means that the movie file is 2 gigabytes in size. For a computer, the smallest size is calculated at 1 bit, but it is practically not measured, it is so small. The calculation begins with a byte that contains 8 bits and further:

1 Kilobyte (KB)= 1024 bytes
1 Megabyte (MB)= 1024 kb (kilobytes)
1 Gigabyte (GB)= 1024 MB (megabytes)
1 Terabyte (TB)= 1024 GB (gigabytes)

The multiple of 1024 is formed from the basic principles of binary numbering. To find out the file size in a standard Windows Explorer window, you need to hover your mouse over the icon of our file, right-click and select “Properties” from the drop-down list. The window that opens will show not only the size, but also other properties of the document.

In addition to the name, extension and size, the file has a number of properties that are of interest to advanced users. For those studying, the above will be sufficient at first.

Share.

Before answering the question what is a file, let's look at the logic behind the appearance of the file. While the program and document are in the computer's RAM, each byte lies in its own cell. Any memory cell has an address (it is written as a double word - a 32-bit binary number), and at this address the processor will always find what it needs.

But when it comes to saving documents or programs on a disk (or on any other medium), the problem arises of how to subsequently find what was saved. It's not difficult to rewrite bytes from RAM to disk, but what do you do with the addresses? Try, for example, take “War and Peace,” cut out each letter from it, put these letters in a stack (according to our calculations, the height of the stack will be about 40 m), and carefully save this stack somewhere. Such a stack will not fit into the room, and it will have to be divided into 20 stacks of 2 meters each.

So, we have come to the conclusion that storing data is only half the battle; you also need to store their addresses - and this is again data, only this time addressed. In general, to prevent address data from becoming too much, the content data must be combined somehow. That's how the files came into being. A file is a unit of data storage. The file has its own name, and it has an address where it is stored. The name of the file is invented by its creator (a person), and the address is set and remembered by the operating system - this is its responsibility. There is absolutely no need for us to remember file addresses - remembering the name is much easier. But the operating system is always ready to find a file by its name and provide access to it.

Providing access to files is another critical function of the operating system. So, the need for files arises from the need to store data.

File - this is a named sequence of bytes, which in turn consists of bits. You can find out what a bit is. It says nothing about the length of this sequence. There may not be a single byte in the file (an empty file), or there may be any number of bytes, but even an empty file has its own name. A name is a property of a file, without which it cannot be found, and if something cannot be found, then, you see, this is no longer storage.

File names

As technology develops, the requirements for file names change. In the recent past they were very tough, but today they have softened significantly.

Short file name. The concept of a “short name” for a file appeared with the first MS-DOS operating system. In those years, a file could have a name of no more than 8 characters. True, a little later they allowed me to put a dot after them and write three more characters, which they called the file name extension. Here are examples of short file names:

document.txt

ris_01.рсх

mymusic.mid

Programmers quickly learned to use the name extension for their technical needs. With its help, it turned out to be very convenient to inform programs about what type of document is presented in the file.

For example:

TXT is a text file, in which each byte represents a language character;

BMP, .GIF, etc. - graphic files in which each byte represents a point in a certain image;

MID is a music file whose bytes correspond to sounds;

EXE and .COM are executable files (that is, programs) in which the bytes correspond to processor commands.

This system for recording file names was called system 8.3 (eight characters per name + period + three characters per extension). This system has important limitations:

you cannot use any letters other than English;
Most punctuation marks and spaces cannot be used.

In general, due to the limited capabilities of the 8.3 system, it was difficult to give files meaningful names - ones by which you can immediately guess what is contained in the file...

Long file name. In those years when hard drives were small and stored hundreds and thousands of files, users usually knew well where a particular file came from and what it was needed for. These days, the average computer can store hundreds of thousands of files, and keeping track of their history is out of the question. Therefore, starting with the Windows 95 operating system, new rules were introduced - so-called long names became acceptable for files. Now the file name can be written in Russian letters; it may contain some punctuation marks (not all), as well as spaces. If there are several dots in the file name, then the extension of the name is considered to be the one after the last dot. The name extension can also have more than three characters.

However, the power of tradition is a great force, and therefore on computers it is not customary to give files long extensions - three characters are enough to indicate the type of document stored in the file. In total, a long name can contain more than 250 characters, although this seems overkill.

A long name has many advantages, but a short name also has one advantage - compatibility. It is not a fact that a document with a long name can be read correctly on any computer. For example, if you use Russian letters in the file name and then send the file to Paris, it becomes unclear what your partner, who has an English version of Windows and does not have any Russian fonts on his computer, will see. Therefore, there is a good rule: when transferring something “outside”, try to give the files names in Latin letters (after typing in the online translator how the word is written in the language you need), and to store files “at home”, act as you please. ..)

P.S. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the information:

With respect to you, Nikitin Vladislav. Don't forget to leave a comment.

male, marine in general, gear for lifting something: the yard and oblique sail are lifted with a halyard; in Russian: gorse and lifting. The halyard is named after the yard and sail: Main-marsa-halyard, fore-bam-halyard, jib-halyard>

Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. IN AND. Dahl. 1863-1866.

Synonyms:

See what "FAL" is in other dictionaries:

Fal, ah... Russian word stress

halyard- halyard, and... Russian spelling dictionary

halyard- fal/… Morphemic-spelling dictionary

- (Halyard, halliard) gear used for lifting some spars (yards, gaffs), sails (jibs, staysails), stern flag, jack, flag signals, etc. Depending on the purpose, it receives an additional name, for example... ... Marine dictionary

And husband. Star. ed. Report: Falovich, Falovna. Derivatives: Falya. Origin: (Presumably Greek thallos shoot, young branch.) Name day: March 29, Oct. 3. Dictionary of personal names. Fal Young branch, allegorically - offspring (Greek). March 29 (16) –… … Dictionary of personal names

Rope, cable, tackle Dictionary of Russian synonyms. halyard noun, number of synonyms: 8 rope (82) dirik halyard ... Synonym dictionary

A; m. [Gol. val] Special 1. Tackle for raising and lowering sails, flags and signal signs. 2. A rope for opening a parachute without the participation of a parachutist, attached at one end to the aircraft and the other to the exhaust ring of the parachute being put on. 3. Cable,... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Goll. val. A rope used to raise sails, yards, etc. Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with the meaning of their roots. Mikhelson A.D., 1865. fal (hol. val) sea. tackle used to lift... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

FAL, fala, husband. (Dutch val) (mor.). Rope, tackle for hoisting yards, sails, signal flags, etc. Ushakov’s Explanatory Dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

FAL, ah, husband. (specialist.). 1. Running rigging gear - a cable used for lifting spars and sails. Signal f. (for giving flag signals, raising the flag). 2. Safety rope (for parachutists, for astronauts when going out into the open... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Any information on disk media is a file. This type of data can be absolutely anything: music, text, photo, video and much more. File– this is the area modified on the drive. On the disk, as I already said, it can be presented in different forms. An executable shortcut to a program is also a file.

Typically files are divided into two types − binary And text. It is clear that text files are a set of some characters that a person can read, but sometimes cannot. Of course, such a document does not have to be a Word file. This can be an object related to the program from which it takes certain instructions. All other files are binary.

A text file contains characters with a specific code. There are a maximum of 127 of them, and they do not contain Russian letters or other characters. This file is also called an ASCII file.

Content:

File names

So, the file name can contain up to 232 characters, after the name there is a dot and the extension type is indicated, for example, “.doc” or “.txt”. The extension usually has 3 characters. By the way, you’ve probably heard more than once that it’s possible. Read the article if interested.

You can name an object using any language, numbers and only the following characters:

— _ $ # & ! % () { } ‘ — `

As for the file size, it can be in bytes (the very minimum) and gigabytes. So far I have not seen a 1 TB file on a standard computer, perhaps this is only on servers.

In any operating system, a file has certain attributes and properties. In modern operating systems, if you hover over it with the mouse pointer, a small window pops up showing the file type, creation time and size.

The same applies to properties. If you go there, you will see additional information:

File type;
An application with which you can launch it;
Disk location;
Size;
Created, modified and when opened.

The Details tab contains owner information, and some files contain copyright information, such as music or photos. But personal information can be deleted.

File attributes

Windows has the ability to use file attributes. The operation is done in properties. For example, the following attributes exist:

Only for reading– the file can be opened and viewed, but not changed;
Hidden– ability to hide a file. You can see it when the function is turned on.

The file can also be archived and indexed for quick access. There are compression and encryption attributes. Compression should be done to save space (for large data).

File permissions

In the properties tab "Safety" there are many interesting possibilities. Let's say you have several accounts on your PC. You can restrict access to files if you are an administrator. For example, prohibit or allow modification, viewing, etc.

To change the rights of a specific user, you need to select it, and then click "Change".

A window will open where you select the user and check the Allow or Deny checkboxes opposite the parameter.

Interaction with other devices

In addition to being able to be modified or created on a hard drive, a file can be moved to any other media or operating system. Of course, executing a file anywhere depends on its type. For example, a Win32 application for Windows is unlikely to run on Linux. Some executable files, which are full-fledged programs, can interact with other devices, for example, printers, scanners, smartphones. Of course, to carry out this operation you will need not one file, but a whole set.

Directories or folders

I think you know what a folder or directory is - a place where one or more files are stored. If the file is located in a certain directory, then a path is automatically created and they say that it is located in such and such a directory. You can create hundreds and thousands of folders and store files in them.

In fact, a folder is also a file with its own type. There are also the concepts of subdirectory and superdirectory.

A subdirectory is a directory D located within directory X. Directory D of directory X is a superdirectory or parent directory.

Folders do not have extensions, and they can be named exactly the same as regular files. It is also acceptable to use some symbols.

I’ll say right away that the following characters cannot be used in folder names:

\ / : * ? < > |

The disk itself is essentially also only a root directory, and subfolders can already be created in it, but such a definition is usually not used, so a folder created on the disk is already a root directory, and its subdirectories are subdirectories.

File and directory path

When you are in a folder, you probably saw a field in Explorer indicating the path. I’ll show you using Windows 10 as an example. If you went through “This PC” to drive D, then the path will look like this:

This PC > Files (D:)

Click on this field and you will see only this path:

Go to any folder and the path will already be like this:

D:\OpenServer

And so on. Why is this necessary? If you work with the command line or the PowerShell utility, then it is advisable to know all the nuances regarding name extensions and locations of files and directories. Of course, now it is much easier to work with the system, but there are times when some problem can only be solved using the command line.

Full file name

It turns out that few people have thought about the fact that there is such a thing as a full file name. This is not the name you see under every file. This is the full path to this file from the root directory or drive. For example, the following line is the full file name:

D:\OpenServer\OpenServer.exe

If, for example, the file is located on external media or on an optical disk inserted into the drive, then the principle is the same.

As for file and folder names, they will be different on different operating systems. It's about the register. The following folder names in Windows will be the same: Papka, papka, PAPKA. On Linux distributions these will be completely different directories. The same principle applies to files.

Using Explorer to work with files and folders

The standard Windows Explorer is somewhat inconvenient and does not always allow you to quickly work with data. There are a minimum of functions, and the rest you need to find yourself. Now you don't have to worry about it.

For working with files and directories, there are third-party explorers that are superior to the standard option. Here are some of them:

Total Commander– unfortunately, it is no longer supported, but it can be used. One of the best guides.

Double Commander– similar functionality to the previous explorer. Can be installed on any OS. Currently being updated.

FreeCommander– file manager for Windows, works well. You can put it on a flash drive and work from any computer. — .

There are other conductors, there are a lot of them and there is no point in listing them all. These have proven to be excellent solutions.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. "What is a file?" - seems like a simple question, but, as it turns out, it can confuse many. Perhaps this is comparable to the question “why is water wet?” All of us, starting to get acquainted with the computer, meet this word(those who got acquainted with it before came across its English interpretation file), and everyone gives it some kind of internal definition for themselves or simply perceives it as a given, albeit not particularly clear.

In general, this word came into use in the middle of the last century, when the computer era was just emerging. However, this word is used not only in computers, but also in office activities. Probably everyone used plastic ones files that can be filed in a folder. The meaning of these material files is very close to their computer meaning - it is a designated (named) area for storing data. By the way, computer files can also be filed (moved or copied) into folders.

What is a file, extension, etc.

It was at the dawn of the computer era that the modern understanding of files was formed and concepts such as file system(this is when one physical storage medium was divided into logical sections with its own characteristics) and file extensions(initially, file names consisted of two parts, which later became known as the file name and extension, respectively).

Modern file systems also use file addresses(links to them), which show the path where it can be found on this particular medium (physical or logical). This path might look like this, for example: d:\Dropbox\draft.html "".

The file name is used in all existing operating systems (in many of them there is a limit on the number of characters used in the name), but the extension as such is not always taken into account (in many operating systems it is considered part of the name, such as in Linux). But in UNIX-like operating systems, which I have already written about in some detail on this blog. This allows you to increase the security of working with files and the system’s resistance to hacking and virus infection.

However on Windows file extension carries a very significant load, allowing you to understand which application (program) should open this file. In this operating system, you can assign an extension to a program that will automatically try to open files of that type.

Due to all of the above, it turns out that a file is a rather complex thing that everyone knows about, but few people have any idea how it all works. Operations on files can be of two types: operations on what is contained inside the container (opening and making changes), and operations on the container itself (renaming, copying, deleting, etc.).

Essentially, a file is a container for storing information (like a transparent “file” in an office) that has external properties (size, name, path to it) and internal properties that, in fact, are not very important for those who look on it from the outside (and not from the inside using the appropriate program).

For example, a text file is externally characterized by the fact that it is located in a certain folder, has a certain size (weight) and is called something. At the same time, inside it looks like a set of text symbols saved for certain needs. For external users this is just an object, but for internal users it could be, for example, an interesting book (enclosed in a text file).

By the way, folder(directory) on your computer - this is also a file, but only containing information about the files contained in it (essentially, these are containers located inside another container). True, folders can be created using the operating system, but to create most types of files you will need to use special programs (for example, editors - text, video, audio, etc.).

As I already mentioned, in Windows you can understand by external signs what kind of file we have. To do this, you just need to look at its extension. True, there are quite a lot of types of extensions, and often you have to rack your brains about which program to open this or that file. But this is a topic for another discussion.

How to change file match types in Windows

Windows uses different icons to display different types of files, so that you can even visually determine what exactly is in front of you (text, video, music, presentation, table, etc.). Also Windows allows you to reassign for different types of files (they are identified by extension) other programs (applications) associated with them. To do this, just right-click on the file with the required extension and select “Properties” from the context menu.

In the window that opens, you will need to click on the “Change” button and select another program, which will open it by default (by double-clicking on the file). If you don’t find the program you need in the list, then expand the “Other programs” list, or click on the “Browse” button and use Explorer to find the program you need to open this type of file on the logical drives of your computer:

For example, you can select Word, the built-in notepad, or Notepad++ to open text files. The appearance of icons for files with the TXT extension will change in this case. I hope the answer to the question “What exactly is this file?” from this note you received. At least that's what I hope.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site