Home folder

Whenever you add a user to Ubuntu, either by installing Ubuntu or manually adding a new user, Ubuntu creates a /home/<username> folder for that user.

This folder is often referred to as "the home folder". This page offers some information about what, exactly, this folder is, what's kept there, and how you can use it.

About the home folder

Here are some facts about the home folder:

You can have as many /home/<username> directories as you have users.
Each user has full read/write/execute access to their /home/<username>' folder.
Each user can make their /home/<username> folder unreadable by other users.
Each user can fully customize their Desktop layout/background, sounds, window manager, applications, etc., when the configurations are saved to the home folder.

The home folder is:

Where your Desktop resides.
Where your documents, pictures, music, videos, audio, and pretty much everything else can be stored.
Where your application settings are stored, in hidden files and directories known as dotfiles (their names start with a .). For example, /home/<username>/.thunderbird contains Thunderbird emails and contacts, and /home/username/.mozilla contains Firefox bookmarks, passwords, history, and plugin.
The only place (with the exclusion of removable drives and the /tmp folder) within the Ubuntu file system where a user can freely create/modify/remove files and directories without needing root permissions or the sudo command.

Installing software into the home folder

Software can be installed into the home folder, giving users who do not have administrative rights to the system the ability to use applications they would like.

An example of software that installs to the home folder is Wine.

You can do this by creating a /home/username/bin folder, compiling software from source and installing it to that folder, or by downloading binary-only software that you keep in the folder. Then add the new binary path to your PATH, as described in adding files to your PATH.

Executable binaries/scripts in your /home/username/bin folder will be accessible from the command line, or by using Alt+F2 in your desktop environment (e.g., GNOME/KDE/Xfce).

Accessing the home folder in the terminal

You can change into the home folder with:

cd /home/<username>

A quicker way is to use the tilde (~) character, which also represents the home folder:

cd ~

Backing up

If you are planning to uninstall Ubuntu, reinstall Ubuntu, or change distro, the home folder is one of the most important things to back up.

For more information on backing up, read the backup page.