introduction to filespaths and io introduction the operating system is critical part of any computer systems it is comprised of elements that manage the processes that run on the cpuhow memory is utilised and managedhow peripheral devices are used (such as printers and scanners)it allows the computer system to communicate with other systems and it also provide support for the file system used the file system allows programs to permanently store data this data can then be retrieved by applications at later datepotentially after the whole computer has been shut down and restarted the file management system is responsible for managing the creationaccess and modification of the long term storage of data in files this data may be stored locally or remotely on diskstapesdvd drivesusb drives etc although this was not always the casemost modern operating systems organise files into hierarchical structureusually in the form of an inverted tree for example in the following diagram the root of the directory structure is shown as '/this root directory holds six subdirectories in turn the users subdirectory holds further directories and so on(cspringer nature switzerland ag huntadvanced guide to python programmingundergraduate topics in computer science