Tilde not recognized in Mac terminal

Question

I have this weird situation on my Mac running OSX Lion where the ~ (tilda) does not go to my user directory. Instead when I type "cd ˜", I get:

-bash: cd: ˜: No such file or directory

Any advice on how to fix this?

what's in the $HOME variable, and does that directory exist? — Marc B, Jan 30 '12 at 18:03
The problem here is that ALT-N "used" to type the right tilde (also for non US keyboards). Now it types the enye ("small" tilde) instead. I didn't manage yet to find an actual solution to this so far. I suppose the issue started appearing since I've upgraded to Mountain Lion, but I'm not 100% sure. — Andrea Sciamanna, Sep 10 '13 at 21:12

score 64 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 23 '17 at 03:23

64

After changing the keyboard (System Preferences>Keyboard>Input Sources) from 'US International - PC' to 'U.S.', I was able to verify tilde sign (~) works as expected from Terminal.

It looks like in some of the macbook, the keyboard is set to 'US International - PC' instead of 'U.S.'

edited Aug 23 '17 at 03:23

Ben

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answered Jan 25 '16 at 19:53

Venkat Ganesh

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Yes, that solved the issue. Use "U.S." instead of "US International - PC"! – Ben Aug 22 '17 at 20:24

score 50 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 13 '13 at 23:50

50

Try this one:

˜ + <spacebar>

It's results the tilde you want: ~

The ˜ character's code is 0x02DC and the code that works in bash like shortcut to home directory is 0x07E.

edited Mar 13 '13 at 23:50

tomrozb

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answered Mar 13 '13 at 23:23

Rômulo Jales

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Still don't believe that this worked, it was troubling me for soo long, really gladly, Thanks! – Wallysson Nunes Dec 03 '13 at 03:29
You know how much time I have lost searching about this? thanks man !! – psabbate May 08 '18 at 23:27
Why do I have to press space + ~ to make it work? Shouldn't it just be shift + ~ – Aftab Naveed Apr 18 '22 at 09:43

score 15 · Answer 3 · answered May 28 '12 at 13:36

The other answers are correct in that you are not typing the regular tilde character but are using the small tilde character. What the other answers do not explain though is why when you type tilde you are getting the small tilde and not the large tilde.

The same problem plagued me for some time. I found the problem was I was using the 'US - International' key mapping. Try changing it in System preferences > Language and Text > Input Sources. With that keyboard selected you need to type the tilde and then hit the space bar to see it change from small tilde to regular tilde.

This works for me. I selected the U.S. keyboard (not U.S International - PC) — William, Jul 23 '21 at 12:52

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 30 '12 at 18:10

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There are several characters like a tilde, and yours ˜ is not the one for the homedir ~ (close together: ˜ vs ~).

answered Jan 30 '12 at 18:10

Wrikken

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score 4 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 31 '13 at 21:07

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I've run into a related issue a couple of time that may have prompted the question: bash doesn't do tilde expansion on quoted filepaths (which you might use if you have spaces in the path). For example, cd "~/Documents/My Project" gets you the same error originally posted. The trick is to leave the tilde and the first slash outside the quote: cd ~/"Documents/My Project" works just fine.

edited Jul 31 '13 at 21:07

Unsigned

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answered Jul 31 '13 at 20:47

Frederick Solt

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score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 30 '12 at 22:24

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Yep, that's an enye (option-n) not ~ (shift-`)

answered Jan 30 '12 at 22:24

Joel

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 23 '13 at 07:40

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I set up KeyRemap4MacBook application and type ~ with shift+escape

setting tilde key to shift escape in KeyRemap4MacBook

answered Dec 23 '13 at 07:40

Maxim Yefremov

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 26 '12 at 08:24

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alt+5 is what you are looking for...

answered Oct 26 '12 at 08:24

manuele

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This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient [reputation](http://stackoverflow.com/faq#reputation) you will be able to [comment on any post](http://stackoverflow.com/privileges/comment). – Nikhil Oct 26 '12 at 08:41
uh maybe I miss something... the question was: I have this weird situation on my Mac running OSX Lion where the ~ (tilda) does not go to my user directory. Instead when I type "cd ˜", I get: -bash: cd: ˜: No such file or directory Any advice on how to fix this? the reason is that (as someone else said before) the character used was not the right one. I mean to add that he right character you have to use for this purposes is the tilde you can get pressing "**alt**" and "**5**" buttons together. – manuele Oct 27 '12 at 12:50

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 10 '22 at 08:19

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I'm using the Brazilian ABNT2 layout. Here [~] + [Alt Gr] does the job.

answered Feb 10 '22 at 08:19

Miguel Pragier

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 21 '22 at 13:31

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As @Venkat Ganesh mentioned, the simple answer to what people are asking is if you're on osx, check to make sure your keyboard didn't get changed to International PC. Once you change it back to US, it resolves the problem. menu bar showing correct US keyboard layout chosen

answered Feb 21 '22 at 13:31

chrismcandrew

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While correct, this answer just duplicates existing answers. – joanis Feb 21 '22 at 17:16

Tilde not recognized in Mac terminal

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