What does this mean?

[Silas1066]

~/Library/

vs.

/Library/

what does the ~ symbol denote?

 

[spinnerlys]

~ is you home directory as in Macintosh HD / Users / YOU.

~ can be used in Terminal to quickly switch to your home directory.

 

[Hellhammer]

I think ~/Library is Mac HD/user/Library while just /Library/ is Mac HD/Library

 

[calderone]

It can also be used in Finder, such as in the "Go To Folder" function among other places it is recognized.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Yup. the ~ symbol just represents your user directory (/Users/youruser/).

FYI, the other terminal prefix to commands you're likely to see is ./somedirectoy/ The period (.) in front simply means whatever directory you are currently in (super handy for when you're 6 directories deep and you don't want to spell out the whole thing).