Local root folder

In web design, the term local root folder (local root directory, etc.) refers to the folder containing files for a website.

Local

The folder is local because it exists on your computer (or jump drive, etc.).

Because the folder is local, it typically contains files that you edit.

Remote

By contrast, a remote folder is available over a network. The remote folder typically contains files that you do not edit, because the files are "live on the web".

Root

The local root folder represents the root (the lowest level) of a website.

The home page for a website is traditionally stored in this folder. (This is not a requirement -- web servers provide many different ways to specify a home page.)

The traditional website home page is a file named index.html in the root folder.

Web servers typically recognize index.html as a default file name.

Web server default file names

Web servers recognize index.html as a default file name. Various other default file names exist, such as index.php (for PHP-based web pages).

Default file names allow users to omit the file name from a URL, because the server will automatically use the default file.

These two URLs do the same thing:

(1) With file name:

http://this-is-a-fake-url.com/index.html

(2) Without file name:

http://this-is-a-fake-url.com

Without file name is easier to read, remember, and use.

Subfolders

Folders within the root folder represent subfolders in the website.

It is common for subfolders to contain files named index.html (or other default file name).

Each of these subfolders default pages acts as a "home page" for that subfolder.