Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-05-06 04:20:02 - Graham Ellis
When a user logs in to a Linux system, the user is taken to their home directory (folder) - a place where their personal work is kept in files and a further structure of sub-directories as appropriate. Configuration files are also kept in their home directory - files like .my.cnf for their MySQL defaults and .bashrc for commands run automatically as they open a shell.
Confusingly, there's also a directory called /home - a.k.a. the home directory created when Linux is installed - that is intended as the parent directory for all user's home directorys.
For example, if I have a login account "graham" on a Linux box, in all probability the system administrator will have put my home directory at /home/graham, and the home directory will be just /home.
Under OS X on the Mac, user accounts are placed into a directory called /Users rather than /home - so that my home directory would be /Users/graham. I found this odd when I first used it, but it certainly makes for a much more understandable system when writing practical exercises for a course!