What directory is the default bash directory

Question

I am using the bash console for Ubuntu and my console location is

user@MyServer:~$

If user@MyServer:/$ is the root directory, what is user@MyServer:~$ ?

You may issue `pwd` to determine your home directory. By default, it should be `/home/{username}/` — Dale, Jan 23 '14 at 08:37

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 23 '14 at 08:36

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As noted in other replies, it's your home directory, which is shortened to ~.

You can find out what directory you're in using the pwd command. eg:

[atticus:pgl]:~ $ pwd
/home/pgl

answered Jan 23 '14 at 08:36

pgl

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 23 '14 at 08:37

~ represents your home directory. If you are logged in as root, this will typically be /root if you are logged in with another user (say with username user) this will typically be /home/user. The best way to know for certain though is either run echo ~ which will print where ~ points to, or you can run the pwd command while in ~ which will show your present working directory - this command is generally useful to know when navigating.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 23 '14 at 08:38

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“user@MyServer:~$” is the command prompt. You can echo $PS1 to see the setting of your environment.

answered Jan 23 '14 at 08:38

bestwolf1983

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 23 '14 at 08:35

0

Its your home directory you can go to your home directory by cd ~

answered Jan 23 '14 at 08:35

Rahul R Dhobi

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is this the same as user@MyServer:/home$ – Andrew Jan 23 '14 at 08:37
@Andrew If your home directory is /home ,then yes. But probably the home directory for user@MyServer is /home/user – nos Jan 23 '14 at 08:39
no you can see it by executing pwd command, user@MyServer:~$ is your /home/user directory – Rahul R Dhobi Jan 23 '14 at 08:39
`cd` is a shell builtin which does `cd $HOME` if no arguments get passed. So no point to do `cd ~`, just `cd` – Reinstate Monica Please Jan 23 '14 at 09:18

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 23 '14 at 09:30

Not always, you can list all users' home directory by:

cut -d : -f1,6 /etc/passwd

so you will get different paths, some under /export/home/USERNAME, some under /home/USERNAME, some has no home directory. For root account, normal / is its home directly.

What directory is the default bash directory

5 Answers5