Actually, URI "file://pandas/cuddly.org" should properly be referring to a relative file path. Subdirectory panda, filename, "cuddly.org".
For reasons left obscure, the syntax of a URL should conform to the following
pattern:
<scheme>:[//<authority>][<path>][?<query>]
For example:
https://coderanch.com/context/etc
Jean's example seems to have parsed improperly and it's taking the "//" of the authority component as though it were the "//" which is the translated version of the "\\" of a CIFS UNC name.
If my memory is accurate,
this would be the proper encoding for a UNC filepath:
file:////server/share/directory1/directory2/filename.ext
Two slashes for the authority marker, 2 to represent the UNC path \\server\share/directory1/directory2/filename.ext. Note that the URL
file://\\server\share\directory1\directory2\filename.ext is technically legal, but you can burn yourself using it, since in Java you have to double-up on backslashes when coding
string literals to avoid getting zapped by the escape mechanism:
file://\\\\server\\share/directory1/directory2/filename.ext and other variations on this theme,
Likewise, for local relative file paths:
file://directory1/directory2/filename.ext
And absolute paths:
file:///basedirectory/directory1/filename.ext
For systems with a single root, such as Unix, Linux, and MacOS
And
file:///c:/basedirectory/directory1/filename.ext
for multi-rooted filesystems like Windows (there are variants on this syntax, but this is one of the cleanest).