What does this command do? "$HOME/path/to/the/Folder/"

Question

Hi,
What does the following command do?
$HOME/path/to/the/Folder/TEMP
If the TEMP file does not exist, will it create a new TEMP folder?
How can I check whether a "new TEMP folder" is created?
Thanks in advance.
Ed

Answer 1

So "$HOME/path/to/the/Folder/.DS_Store" will fill in the "path" that the .DS_Store is stored?
You fill in the path.  That is to say, we do not know the folder you are interested in.  And since there are thousands of folders (hundreds of thousand) on the Mac, the computer will not fill it in either.  ONLY "You" know where the folder you are interested in lives.  So you replace "path/to/the/Folder" with the correct information.  Until then "path/to/the/Folder" is a place holder, and a way for me to give you the general idea of how to specify the path, without my actually knowing where the desired folder lives.
You build a path by stringing folder names together, separated by a forward slash / and if there are any spaces or punctuation characters in the folder names, you protect the full path name by enclosing it in quotes, 'stuff to protect goes in here'.
The option is to get out of the Terminal and forget it ever existed.  99.9999999% of Mac usage does not need the Terminal, and generally it is ancient programmers that grew up when 80 column punched cards were how you communicated with computers.  That generation thinks a Terminal is advanced technology, and having noticed that the computer industry has moved on (and yes, I am one of them, and I actually make my living still using terminal emulators, but the rest of the world has moved on).
BTW, is it right that the "." will make the file "hidden"?
A file with a leading period in its name is a long standing convention from back in the '70's on Unix platforms that by default the 'ls' (list) command would not display files that started with a leading period unless' ls -a' was used.  This was a way to put config files in a users home directory, but not clutter up the 'ls' output with things most users did not care about on a day-to-day basis.  Over time, it was adapted as a way to hid files.  The Mac "Finder" took up treating files with leading periods as hidden files.
The Mac "Finder" has other ways to indicating a file should be hidden via a "hidden" file attribute, which is used to hide standard system folders that users should not be playing with, such as the operating system files.  Most Mac users never see them and do not care.
Can I check whether the directory or file exist from the Finder -> Mac HD or Finder -> Home?
If the file or folder does not have a leading period or the above mentioned hidden file attribute, the Finder can display, if you can navigate to the file or folder.  Finder -> Go -> "Go to Folder..." can get you anywhere, assuming you can enter the /path/to/where/you/want/to/go/notation, or at least the beginning to get you started.  Just entering / all by itself will put you at the top of the file system (called the root directory).
However, if a file or folder is hidden, the Finder will not display it, unless you play games with Finder hidden features that takes you back to Terminal commands and/or 3rd party utilities that can enable the Finder show all files mode.
NOTE:  If you go exploring outside your home folder, please do not modify or delete things, or you could turn your Mac into a "Door Stop".  A "Pretty", but very expensive "Door Stop".