Distributed File System
A folder is a directory. Folders can be inside other folders, and so can files...
It is called Directory..
directory
The directory
Top-level
Directories and folders are interchangeable terms. In the days before Windows (known as the "DOS" days), "Folders" were called, "Directories." To explain what a directory was, it was said to be "like a folder" which held documents (files) and sometimes envelopes (sub-directories) which could also hold other envelops and/or documents etc. etc. At some point Microsoft started referring to "Directories" as "Folders" supposedly to make it easier to understand for those new to computers. Computer files are always found in a named Directory. If a file isn't in a named directory, it is said to be in the "Root" directory i.e "In the root directory of the D: drive." Further, if a sub-directory/folder is in another directory, it is the "child" of the "parent" directory.
Directory structure in OS is the stable and scalable organization of files into a hierarchy of folders. It can be added to, but the fundamentals should don't change. These folders help computer users keep track of where everything on their PC is located.
Labels are folders in Gmail account. They are a directory to keep specific type of emails. This helps in classification of Mails.
A "directory" in DOS is a "folder" in Windows Explorer.The terms are interchangeable, and some people call folders "directories" anyway.
Computers store data in a series of directories. Each directory, or folder, may contain files or other directories. If a directory is located within another directory, it is called a sub-directory (or sub-folder) of that folder.
Easy - CD to the directory with the files and folders, and do: zip -r foo *
From what you are describing it sounds like you're hunting for the term "File system". A directory tree is a series of folders which stems from the root level.