Meaning of (./) in URI?

Question

After reading and seeing the samples here

Given the example of uri :

 http://a/b/c/d;p?q

redirecting to "g" will redirect me to http://a/b/c/g ( cause c is the directory)

So I ask myself when should i use ./g

It is actually the same [goto current folder and find g]

so Why this syntax is even exists ? ./ when should I use it ?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 18 '12 at 11:42

The generic URI syntax consists of a hierarchical sequence of components referred to as the scheme, authority, path, query, and fragment.

  URI         = scheme ":" hier-part [ "?" query ] [ "#" fragment ]

  hier-part   = "//" authority path-abempty
              / path-absolute
              / path-rootless
              / path-empty

The scheme and path components are required, though the path may be empty (no characters). When authority is present, the path must either be empty or begin with a slash ("/") character. When authority is not present, the path cannot begin with two slash characters ("//"). These restrictions result in five different ABNF rules for a path (Section 3.3), only one of which will match any given URI reference.

  The following are two example URIs and their component parts:

         foo://example.com:8042/over/there?name=ferret#nose
         \_/   \______________/\_________/ \_________/ \__/
          |           |            |            |        |
       scheme     authority       path        query   fragment
          |   _____________________|__
         / \ /                        \
         urn:example:animal:ferret:nose

@RoyiNamir i was not sure that why i make cw ...could you please add the correct answer i am sure i have got complete knowledge about your question — NullPoiиteя, Nov 19 '12 at 05:15
It doesn't tell when/ why should I use `./` it just show the structure.... am I wrong ? — Royi Namir, Nov 19 '12 at 05:20

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 18 '12 at 11:43

I'd put it this way:

There is no special reason why this construct exists (or was created/defined). It simply exists because it is a logical combination of other constructions (., /,/g) that are required and thus defined out of other reasons. Since those constructions (path components here) can be combined more or less without limitation the questionable constrcut ./g is well defined and thus valid. But that does not mean that there must be special reason why exactly this construct was or has to be defined.

Meaning of (./) in URI?

2 Answers2