What does servletcontext.getRealPath(“/”) mean and when should I use it

Question

In the following snippet:

ServletContext context = request.getServletContext();
String path = context.getRealPath(\"/\");

What does /

Answer 1

My Method:

protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException {

    try {
        String path = request.getRealPath("/WEB-INF/conf.properties");
        Properties p = new Properties();
        p.load(new FileInputStream(path));

        String StringConexion=p.getProperty("StringConexion");
        String User=p.getProperty("User");
        String Password=p.getProperty("Password");
    }
    catch(Exception e){
        String msg = "Excepcion " + e;
    }
}