When I first log in to Unix on my Mac, I usually see a ~ after my username in the command line.However, if I look at the apps contained in that directory ~/Applications they are not all of my applications, but rather just some of my chrome apps.If I cd to my / directory, and then go to /Applications there I see all of my applications, so I am wondering what is the difference?Also, if I go to ~/MY-USERNAME/Applications I see the same as if I just I were just in ~. So what is the difference?Lastly, how come I can cd into my USERNAME directory endlessly?  (see screen shot, startec is my username)
What is the difference between ~ and / in paths
shell;directory structure
~ is your home directory, / is the root directory. ~ is where you keep your personal files and directories. Other users can't see or access them. Files and directories in / are system-wide and accessible to all users who have the right permissions. Startec is a link, which allows you to have two pointers to the same directory (in this case it points to your home directory). I know that most people draw the file system strictly as a tree, but with links (hard or soft) this isn't completely true. To create links you can use the ln command. To see more about those see, man 1 ln. Here is a diagram of a unix file system with links shown in dotted lines, and directories with solid lines. Source: http://users.aber.ac.uk/cwl/UNIX/notes/filesystem/fs.html