what does "~/." mean in terms of OS X folders/directories?
I'm installing a program on my MacBook that has to be unzipped to the ~/.spring directory; now, I know what Spring is, it's the name of the thing I'm installing. I'd be very happy to create a .spring folder if I knew what ~/. meant.
The tilde symbol (~) in OS X command-line terminology refers to your home directory, e.g /Users/Joe.
As JonathanMueller pointed out, anything with a dot (.) in front, is considered hidden. Thus, what your program needs you to do is to:
- Fire up Terminal
- cd ~ (goes to your home directory)
- mkdir .spring (creates a hidden spring directory)
You will not be able to see this folder in Finder, as it is hidden, but going to Terminal and using ls -a while in Terminal will show up the hidden folders.
~ is a reference to the home directory. A dot directory is a "hidden" directory in UNIX.