[SOLVED] ~# What does this mean at login?

NightSky · 09-08-2005, 05:31 AM

I thought root is just #
I get ~# what does the nene mean before root symbol? Or is this just the way it is in Slackware8? (I am running dualboot win98se one hd & Slack8 has its own hd) Thnx

Nylex · 09-08-2005, 05:33 AM

The tilde (~) means you're in your home directory (root's home directory, right now).

NightSky · 09-08-2005, 05:41 AM

If this is home root ~# What do I do here that I cant or dont do in #
Then what is # What is the difference? And I dont know how I login to ~#
I thought I was just logining in as root. lol U can refer me to a book, site or link if this is too basic a ques. Maybe a list defining commands and symbols for slackware8? thnx

Nylex · 09-08-2005, 05:44 AM

You ARE logged in as root. As I said before, the ~ is just your home directory. If you were logged in as a normal user, the ~ would mean /home/username, for root, it's /root.

Edit: ~ for a user's home directory isn't specific to Slackware either.

theYinYeti · 09-08-2005, 08:30 AM

The Unix prompt is changeable depending on your needs, so ~, and even #, means nothing: it's only information. Only what you type has meaning.

However, it is usual on Unix systems to put a # at the end of root's prompt, and a % at the end of users' prompts (on Linux, for regular users, it is $ instead, I don't know why).

Yves

Nylex · 09-08-2005, 08:36 AM

But without changing anything, ~ is still a user's home directory.

theYinYeti · 09-08-2005, 08:54 AM

Yes

I was actually answering to NightSky, not to you. ~ is indeed the usual shell notation for $HOME.

Yves.

AxelFendersson · 09-08-2005, 01:03 PM

Remember how in DOS and the Windows command line, it shows you the current working directory as part of the prompt? Something like C:\monkey> ? This is the same thing. As has already been explained, Linux (and other Unix-like OSes) uses ~ as a shorthand for whatever your home directory is (For root that would be /root). So if you're currently in your home directory, you'll have ~ as part of your prompt.

XavierP · 09-08-2005, 01:36 PM

The question is, though, do you have a normal user account or are you logging in directly as root? That's a no-no

NightSky · 12-07-2005, 02:37 AM

Thnx, I understand now.