Excerpt from RFC 1738 3.10 FILES The file URL scheme is used to designate files accessible on a particular host computer. This scheme, unlike most other URL schemes, does not designate a resource that is universally accessible over the Internet. A file URL takes the form: file:/// where is the fully qualified domain name of the system on which the is accessible, and is a hierarchical directory path of the form //.../. For example, a VMS file DISK$USER:[MY.NOTES]NOTE123456.TXT might become As a special case, can be the string "localhost" or the empty string; this is interpreted as `the machine from which the URL is being interpreted'. The file URL scheme is unusual in that it does not specify an Internet protocol or access method for such files; as such, its utility in network protocols between hosts is limited.