The public_html and www directories.

When you login to a cpanel based hosting account for the first time, you'll probably notice that the public_html and www directories have the same files in them which could cause confusion as to which one to use.

The www directory is not a directory at all, but in reality a symbolic link. It works somewhat like a scifi warp. You click on it and you're warped into the public_html directory. Depending on what you're accessing the files with, it may retain the www name as the directory you're in, or it may show the actualy directory you're in (/public_html). Using either one will work the same way and you can even use the www when using paths in scripts if you like something that's shorter.