HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
6.2.4.1. The file server
The file
server
can be, like the http one, an Internet domain name or IP
address of the computer containing the file to be retrieved. Unlike ht-
tp, however, which requires Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Pro-
tocol (TCP/IP) networking, the file server may also be the unqualified
but unique name of a computer on a personal network, or a storage
device on the same computer, such as a CD-ROM, or mapped from an-
other networked computer. No assumptions are made as to how the
browser might contact the machine to obtain the file; presumably the
browser can make some connection, perhaps via a Network File System
or FTP, to obtain the file.
If you omit the server name by including an extra slash (
/
) in the URL,
or if you use the special name
localhost
, the browser retrieves the file
from the machine on which the browser is running. In this case, the
browser simply accesses the file using the normal facilities of the loc-
al operating system. In fact, this is the most common usage of the file
URL. By creating document families on a diskette or CD-ROM and refer-
encing your hyperlinks using the
file:///
URL, you create a distributable,
standalone document collection that does not require a network connec-
tion to use.
6.2.4.2. The file path
This is the path of the file to be retrieved on the desired server. The syn-
tax of the path may differ based on the operating system of the server;
be sure to encode any potentially dangerous characters in the path.
6.2.4.3. Sample file URLs
The file URL is easy:
