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This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Sams Teach Yourself FreeBSD in 24 HoursSams Teach Yourself FreeBSD in 24 Hours

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This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Sams Teach Yourself FreeBSD in 24 HoursSams Teach Yourself FreeBSD in 24 Hours

Learn More Buy

Your Home Directory

After you have successfully logged in and you have the bash$ prompt, you will be located in your home directory. Your home directory is basically your personal space on the FreeBSD system. It is similar to the My Documents folder in Windows. All of your personal files are stored in your home directory, including your personal preference files for how FreeBSD is set up and any additional documents or directories you create. By default, no one else can write anything to your home directory. This means that no one else except you can create directories or files in your home directory. It also means that no one else can change or delete any directories or files in your home directory. This provides a measure of security because it prevents others from accidentally deleting your files.

CAUTION

By default, FreeBSD only prevents other users from deleting or changing files and directories that you have in your home directory. It does not stop other users from reading files stored in your home directory. If you have sensitive files that you want to make sure other users cannot read, you can change the file's settings to do this. This will be covered in Hour 4, "Basic UNIX Shell Use." Note however that the root user (system administrator) can read any file on the system. It is impossible to prevent the root user from reading any file. So keep in mind that even if you set a file so that only you can read it, anyone who has system administrator access to the system will still be able to read the file anyway.

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Last Update: November 17, 2020