what is the use of "~" tilde in url?

Question

what is the use of ~ tilde in URL?
I am using cPanel, and have link including tilde, why is tilde there?

When we buy server space but do not have dns or don't want to use it for development purposes,we use the like http://serverip/~foldername.

Perhaps questions like this that became "off-topic" years after being asked and answered primarily due to new .SE websites opening up should be migrated to the new .SE website? — T.E.D., Sep 13 '22 at 14:32

score 79 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 09 '18 at 18:28

79

Well, a webserver is free to use any character after the leading URI part for whatever purpose it wants.

That being said, the use of ~ generally hearkens back to the early days of the web, when just about every web server ran on Unix. In the Unix world, systems supported multiple users, each with their own home directory. If you want to go to your own home directory, you cd ~. If you want to go to some other user like fred's home directory, that would be cd ~fred.

So when people started putting up web servers, they would generally let every user in the system have their own web space, which is accesible from the root of the webserver by using ~username.

For example, a very old website of mine (now defunct) provided by an old ISP (Telepath) was at http://www.telepath.com/~dennison/

edited Nov 09 '18 at 18:28

j08691

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answered Jun 06 '11 at 13:25

T.E.D.

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Note, the website in question no longer exists. $15 a month got to be a bit steep just to keep the link in this one answer valid. :-) – T.E.D. Jul 19 '16 at 13:59
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Damn, you forgot mentioning the "public_html" dir. ~user/ content was generally served from /home/user/public_html/ directory... Good old days :) – binarym Dec 21 '18 at 16:05

score 23 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 30 '13 at 14:38

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Actually tilde '~' represents home directory. When you place tilde in url, It will access from home directory

edited Jan 30 '13 at 14:38

Veger

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answered Jun 06 '11 at 13:13

vkrams

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This is *one possible* configuration and a common one on (oldish) unix systems. But there's no standard that requires this to be true. – Joachim Sauer Jan 30 '13 at 14:47
is this also true for windows servers? – Black Jul 19 '16 at 14:07

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 06 '11 at 13:12

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Tilde isn't anything special in the URLs. It's just another character like a %20 character or a -.

Some web host companies use it to identify users by giving the users directories like /~(username)/

answered Jun 06 '11 at 13:12

Jon

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score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 06 '11 at 13:12

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A tilde in a URL usually is followed by a user name and indicates that the files below that URL come from that user's home directory.

answered Jun 06 '11 at 13:12

Lawrence McAlpin

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 06 '11 at 13:12

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~ refers to your home directory. If it is in the URL it means that the cpanel is located relative to your home directory.

answered Jun 06 '11 at 13:12

Pierre

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what is the use of "~" tilde in url?

5 Answers5

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