3.2.3.3. Your home directory

Your home directory is your default destination when connecting to the system. In most cases it is a subdirectory of /home, though this may vary. Your home directory may be located on the hard disk of a remote file server; in that case your home directory may be found in /nethome/your_user_name. In another case the system administrator may have opted for a less comprehensible layout and your home directory may be on /disk6/HU/07/jgillard.

Whatever the path to your home directory, you don't have to worry too much about it. The correct path to your home directory is stored in the HOME environment variable, in case some program needs it. With the echo command you can display the content of this variable:

orlando:~> echo $HOME
/nethome/orlando

You can do whatever you like in your home directory. You can put as many files in as many directories as you want, although the total amount of data and files is naturally limited because of the hardware and size of the partitions, and sometimes because the system administrator has applied a quota system. Limiting disk usage was common practice when hard disk space was still expensive. Nowadays, limits are almost exclusively applied in large environments. You can see for yourself if a limit is set using the quota command:

pierre@lamaison:/> quota -v
Diskquotas for user pierre (uid 501): none

In case quotas have been set, you get a list of the limited partitions and their specific limitations. Exceeding the limits may be tolerated during a grace period with fewer or no restrictions at all. Detailed information can be found using the info quota or man quota commands.

	No Quota?
	If your system can not find the quota, then no limitation of file system usage is being applied.

Your home directory is indicated by a tilde (~), shorthand for /path_to_home/user_name. This same path is stored in the HOME variable, so you don't have to do anything to activate it. A simple application: switch from /var/music/albums/arno/2001 to images in your home directory using one elegant command:

rom:/var/music/albums/arno/2001> cd ~/images

rom:~/images> pwd
/home/rom/images

Later in this chapter we will talk about the commands for managing files and directories in order to keep your home directory tidy.