When you login to the system, your current working directory is set to your home directory, which is where all of the files that you own reside. It is named /<directoryname>/accountname, where accountname is your logon ID.
Many UNIX commands and file operations make reference to your home directory. You should always reference your home directory by using by using a tilde ''
''. For example, the command:
cat .cshrc
is the same as typing:
cat /sulu/myuserid/.cshrc
Similarly, the command:
cd /bin
sets your current working directory to the directory bin in your home directory.
You can of course reference your directory as/directoryname/accountname, but if for some reason you were to hardcode this into a program, and your files were to be moved to /newdirectory/accountname, you would have to modify all of your programs. The '''' eliminates this requirement and will always work as a reference to your home directory.