Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A book containing an alphabetical or classified listing of names, addresses, and other data, such as telephone numbers, of specific persons, groups, or firms.
  • noun Computers An organizational unit for files that reside on a hard disk or other storage device.
  • noun A book of rules or directions.
  • noun A group or body of directors.
  • adjective Serving to direct.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Guiding or directing; directive.
  • noun A guide; a rule to direct; particularly (ecclesiastical), a book of directions for saying the various church offices and for finding the changes in them required by the calendar; especially, in medieval English usage, a book of directions for saying the hours. Also called ordinal, pica, or pie. The directory of the Greek Church is called the typicum.
  • noun Specifically A book containing an alphabetical list of the inhabitants of a city, town, district, or the like, with their occupation, place of business, and abode.
  • noun A board of directors; a directorate. Specifically
  • noun [capitalized] The body constituting the executive in France during a part of the revolutionary epoch, consisting of five members called directors, one of whom retired each year.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Containing directions; enjoining; instructing; directorial.
  • noun A collection or body of directions, rules, or ordinances; esp., a book of directions for the conduct of worship.
  • noun A book containing the names and residences of the inhabitants of any place, or of classes of them; an address book.
  • noun A body of directors; board of management; especially, a committee which held executive power in France under the first republic.
  • noun rare Direction; guide.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A list of names, addresses etc., of specific classes of people or organizations, often in alphabetical order or in some classification.
  • noun computing A structured listing of the names and characteristics of the files on a storage device.
  • noun computing A virtual container in a computer's file system, in which files and other directories may be stored. The files and subdirectories in a directory are usually related.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an alphabetical list of names and addresses
  • noun (computer science) a listing of the files stored in memory (usually on a hard disk)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English directorie, from Medieval Latin directorium.

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Examples

  • The following functions show both the files & the folders located in a specific directory: scandir () array scandir (string $directory [, int $sorting_order [, resource $context]])

    Pixel2Life.com: Latest 15 Tutorials 2009

  • /bin/bash echo - e "What directory would you like to back up?" read directory DESTDIR = user@host.rsync.net: $directory/rsync -- progress - avze ssh -- exclude = "*. iso" $directory $DESTDIR

    Linux.com - Content Feed 2010

  • /bin/bash echo - e "What directory would you like to back up?" read directory DESTDIR = user@host.rsync.net: $directory/rsync -- progress - avze ssh -- exclude = "*. iso" $directory $DESTDIR

    Linux.com - Content Feed Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier 2010

  • Within this directory is a file called PSAuthor. h and its contents are quite intriguing.

    Apple source code pointing to social features? | FactoryCity 2007

  • As for the possible load imposition of per directory. htaccess files, the same directives can instead be put into the main httpd. conf file for the Directory/Virtual Host which ensures the rules are only loaded when the server starts, rather than when a directory is accessed.

    Scripting News for 4/7/2007 « Scripting News Annex 2007

  • As for the possible load imposition of per directory. htaccess files, the same directives can instead be put into the main httpd. conf file for the Directory/Virtual Host which ensures the rules are only loaded when the server starts, rather than when a directory is accessed.

    Scripting News for 4/7/2007 « Scripting News Annex 2007

  • This directory is an example of how GPO is using new technology and publishing trends in creating a first class, easy to navigate website.

    New: GPO Creates Its First Ever On-Line Guide To Members Of Congress « ResourceShelf 2007

  • Just like a directory is actually a file in your file system that contains a list of all files within it.

    RSS came from the publishing industry « Scripting News Annex 2006

  • Microsoft introduced NGAD, which it calls a directory federation technology, on the second day of its annual Professional Developers Conference going on this week.

    Netflash John Fontana 2009

  • When I returned home I had a PHP file waiting from js-kit support that needed to go into my wp-admin directory to make the Wordpress export compatible with JS-Kit.

    Web Teacher › Installing JS-Kit Echo on Web Teacher 2009

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