Default User Home directory in Linux and solaris ?

Do you know what is the default home directory of a user in Linux and Solaris ?

In this post, we will look at the difference between default user home directory in Linux and Solaris.

Linux : Default User Home Directory

In linux, the default user home directory is /home.

### Create a user and check the default home directory assigned.
[saket@ngelinux-new ~]$ echo $HOME
/home/saket

### By default /home is created under / partition if not explicitly defined.
[saket@ngelinux-new ~]$ df -h .
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1        20G   11G  8.2G  56% /
[saket@ngelinux-new ~]$ 

Solaris : Default User Home Directory

In Solaris, the default home directory is not /home, it is /export/home which is mounted using autofs to /home.
Hence in Solaris, there is no /home directory exists on partition, it is mounted and linked to /export/home directory by default.

Why /home is autofs by default in solaris ?
Sun Microsystems developed servers like nfs, and nis and hence sun reserved /home for ldap and configured inside ldap or nis via autofs.

I hope now you are clear with the default home directories in Linux and Solaris and how it is different.

Do post your valuable comments/suggestions/questions below.

Tags: /export/home/homedirectorylinuxsolarisunixuser