Sometimes a keyboard is faster than a mouse.

By Lee Brannon

 

Sometimes typing the path to a file or folder is way faster than clicking, searching, clicking and searching. However there are different ways to type a path. This article deals with the difference between LFS and UNC paths.

 What is LFS and how is it different from UNC?

The GUI Graphical User Interface has been around for a long time now and honestly it makes a lot of things simple and easy, however sometimes typing is the way to go.

Nearly every operating system has a way for you to open folders without using the click method of the mouse.  Sometimes this can speed up the process.  There are basically two types of these keyboard based shortcuts.  Although the wording used in Unix, Linux and other operating systems may be different the Windows names are generally used for this purpose.

LFS stands for Local File System.  This is the syntax or structure used by Windows computers to access local files and directories.

UNC stands for Universal (or Uniform) naming convention and it is the syntax or structure used by Windows based computers to access shared network resources.

So, what is the difference?

Let’s look at LFS first.

With the advent of the GUI interface most of use get around simply by clicking the mouse and selecting objects or menu items, but you can also enter the drive path of the storage device, folder / directory or file you would like to access. Let’s say you have a folder called “football” on the computer and it is stored inside another folder called “Sports I like”.  Lets suppose that the folders are on the C: drive The format is Drive letter, then a backwards slash then the folder.  Each sub folder is divided by a backwards slash also. On most Windows systems the LFS path for our example would look this “C:\Sports I Like\football”. 

Note: In an Open window you can use the forward slash as the folder divider, but it will automatically change it to the backwards slash when the folder window is open.

You can use this path to get to the folder. Opening any drive, folder or object window you could enter the path into the bar across the top and press the Enter key to open the folder.

Here we have opened the window for “My Computer”.

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Now we enter the LFS path into the address bar and press the Enter key.  The folder is opened.

You could also use the command window and at the prompt enter the path to get a DOS like view of the directory. To change the path to the new location you need to use the command CD (which stands for Change Directory) followed by the LFS path.  You can then see the contents of the directory/folder with the DIR command.

On Unix, Linux and many other systems a similar path can be used to locate and open local folders and files.  For example the same thing I just demonstrated in the command window of a  Windows based PC can be done on a newer Macintosh OS by using a terminal window to Darwin.

You would simply enter cd ‘/Sports I like/football/’  Notice the quotes and the forward slashes.  Also some versions of the Mac OS have a “Go to the folder” window which will allow you to enter the local path of a folder.  Pressing the Command key – Shift key and G keys together will get you the window.  At that point you can simply type /Sports I Like/football/ and hit the “go” button.

 

Now lets look at UNC.

The UNC path consist of the computer name and the folder names separated by backslashes.  Instead of using a drive letter we simply use the computers name followed by each folder name divided by the backslashes.

Suppose that the “football” folder was inside a folder called “Sports I like” on another computer or network server that we had rights to.  As long as the “Sports I like” folder is shared we could access that folder through the point and click method or we could use the UNC path to get to it. If we used the point and click method we would have to access the network connection, locate and double-click the computer, locate and open the share, locate and open the ...  You get the idea. 

Let’s say the computer is called “Colleens_Dell”.  All we have to do is enter the UNC path “\\colleens_dell\Sports I Like\football in the address line to get to the folder as shown here.

 

On a Macintosh you would want to use the Go menu option “connect to Server” and then enter the UNC path like this: smb://colleens_dell/Sports I like/football/.  Notice the forward slashes.  You will get prompted for a user name and password.

Note: SMB stands for Server Message Block and is simply a protocol used for the Mac to talk to other computers.  You may have heard that on newer Macs this has been changed to CIFS (Common Internet File System.) but SMB still works.

Of course there are variations in how you get connected using a UNC path with the different flavors of Unix and Linux but the concepts of LFS and UNC Paths are basically the same for every operating system.

Well there you have the basics of using LFS and UNC and what the difference is. So now do some racing of your own.  Enter a path and then do the same thing with mouse clicking.  Which way was faster?

 

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.

 

A text version of this article has been distributed to Articlesbase.com