DaemonForums  

Go Back   DaemonForums > FreeBSD > FreeBSD General

FreeBSD General Other questions regarding FreeBSD which do not fit in any of the categories below.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   (View Single Post)  
Old 7th September 2008
delboy's Avatar
delboy delboy is offline
Fdisk Soldier
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 63
Default Directory query

I use midnight commander(I'm still not confident enough with emacs)and I have noticed that I have two Home directories.
one is:
~Home
and the other is:
/usr/home

They are identical in every way,and wonder if this is normal.
I also have four other entries starting with a tilde:
~compat
~nambd
~sys
~X11R6

Every thing else starts with / the ones with a tilde just seem out of place.
Reply With Quote
  #2   (View Single Post)  
Old 7th September 2008
richardpl richardpl is offline
Spam Deminer
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Croatia
Posts: 284
Default

You really need to read UNIX Basics section in FreeBSD handbook again.

~ (tilde) show that directory/file is actually symbolic link ...
some shells use different colors to make things look different, ls(1) command have -F switch ...
and mc have tilde - very bad choice IMHO
Reply With Quote
  #3   (View Single Post)  
Old 7th September 2008
delboy's Avatar
delboy delboy is offline
Fdisk Soldier
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 63
Default

richardpl

I thought ~ meant Home directory,are you saying it means symbolic link if so what is the symbol for Home directory.
And if all the tildes in midnight commander are symbolic links,is it o/k to delete them.
Reply With Quote
  #4   (View Single Post)  
Old 7th September 2008
richardpl richardpl is offline
Spam Deminer
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Croatia
Posts: 284
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by delboy View Post
richardpl

I thought ~ meant Home directory,are you saying it means symbolic link if so what is the symbol for Home directory.
Read handbook section: UNIX Basics again. ~/ mean home directory, ~ is just - tilde.

Quote:
Originally Posted by delboy
And if all the tildes in midnight commander are symbolic links,is it o/k to delete them.
Sybolic links (installded by system) are not for deletion - you can risk malfunction of some old programs ... or programs for which they are created. Symoblic links with Hard links are very usefull UNIX features ....
Reply With Quote
  #5   (View Single Post)  
Old 7th September 2008
delboy's Avatar
delboy delboy is offline
Fdisk Soldier
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 63
Default

richardpl

Thank you for that explanation about the tildes I can now see the difference between ~ and ~/.
But why would I need two identical dirs.
And should I leave everything as it is.
Reply With Quote
  #6   (View Single Post)  
Old 8th September 2008
phoenix's Avatar
phoenix phoenix is offline
Risen from the ashes
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 696
Default

There is no difference between ~ and ~/ they are both the same: shorthand for "the current user's home directory as defined in /etc/passwd".

~username is shorthand for "username's home directory as defined in /etc/passwd"

Now, it sounds like you installed FreeBSD with a single large / partition for everything (or without a separate partition for /home). Which means the default home directories for all users is /usr/home/, and "/home" is just a symbolic link to it, as a lot of software expects "user homes directories" to be under /home.
__________________
Freddie

Help for FreeBSD: Handbook, FAQ, man pages, mailing lists.
Reply With Quote
  #7   (View Single Post)  
Old 8th September 2008
delboy's Avatar
delboy delboy is offline
Fdisk Soldier
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 63
Default

phoenix

Yes you are quite right about the partition,I used A(default)option at fdisk menu, allocating the whole disk to FreeBSD.
Thanks to you and richardpl for all your help.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
pftop state query. bsdnewbie999 OpenBSD General 1 10th April 2009 03:33 AM
strange "~" directory in home directory gosha OpenBSD General 5 23rd February 2009 06:12 PM
backup mails on NAS directory milo974 OpenBSD General 3 8th August 2008 07:39 AM
how to copy a directory. bsdnewbie999 OpenBSD General 1 12th July 2008 02:36 PM
[VSFTPD] Can't write in directory Sunsawe General software and network 7 1st June 2008 11:29 PM


All times are GMT. The time now is 04:41 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Content copyright © 2007-2010, the authors
Daemon image copyright ©1988, Marshall Kirk McKusick