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File

The file scheme allows files on your local system to be specified, in which case the browser will read the file directly. The syntax is:

    file:[//hostname]/path

A host name can be specified so that browsers can determine that the file referred to is not on the local system. They may then use another scheme, such as anonymous FTP, to try to retrieve the file.

An example of a file URL is:

    file:/usr/local/lib/ghostscript/README

(This link will only work if you have a file of this name on your machine.)

Spinning the Web by Andrew Ford
© 1995 International Thomson Publishing
© 2002 Andrew Ford and Ford & Mason Ltd
Note: this HTML document was generated in December 1994 directly from the LaTeX source files using LaTeX2HTML. It was formatted into our standard page layout using the Template Toolkit. The document is mainly of historical interest as obviously many of the sites mentioned have long since disappeared.