A tilde account is a home directory on a shared unix machine: a shell login, a ~ directory, and a set of publishing and social tools that vary by host. This page describes what an account typically includes and where hosts differ. Terms are defined in Glossary.
~ home directory~/public_html/ served at host/~you/~/public_gopher/) and gemini (~/public_gemini/) spaces alongside the web site.plan, .project), and tools written by other members| Aspect | Typical | Variants |
|---|---|---|
| web space | ~/public_html/ | sdf serves ~/html (a symlink outside home); cosmic.voyage serves ~/ships/<name>/ instead of ~user dirs |
| login shell | bash | csh on tilde.pink, ksh on sdf; chsh may or may not be offered |
local spool read with mail/alpine/mutt | tilde.club gives a real maildir with sieve and .forward; envs.net is server-side IMAP; cosmic mail only reaches other pubnixes |
|
| IRC client | weechat or irssi | some hosts run a local ircd (town chat connects to one); others point at irc.tilde.chat |
| persistence | none | byobu/tmux sessions keep IRC connected between logins; sessions die on server reboot |
| publishing extras | guestbook (guestbook.txt) | sdf supports CGI (guestbook.cgi); club ships the bashblog engine; town has ttbp, bink, and a launcher of community tools |
~ names are usernames: tilde.town/~name. The same person may have different logins on different hostsEDITOR/VISUAL are usually pre-set (often to micro); rw.rs leaves them unset~/.hushlogin suppresses the login banner on most hosts; tilde.green uses its own ~/.config/tilde-green-hushed-login-mail.ssh/, mail configs, IRC configs. See Joining a Tilde for key hygienefinger, byobu, or mutt