How to find the real user home directory using python?
directory, home-directory, linux, python, windows
Solution
I think `os.path.expanduser(path)` could be helpful.
On Unix and Windows, return the argument with an initial component of `~` or `~user` replaced by that user‘s home directory.
On Unix, an initial `~` is replaced by the environment variable HOME if it is set; otherwise the current user’s home directory is looked up in the password directory through the built-in module `pwd`. An initial `~user` is looked up directly in the password directory.
On Windows, HOME and USERPROFILE will be used if set, otherwise a combination of HOMEPATH and HOMEDRIVE will be used. An initial `~user` is handled by stripping the last directory component from the created user path derived above.
If the expansion fails or if the path does not begin with a tilde, the path is returned unchanged.
So you could just do:
os.path.expanduser('~user')
Problem
I see that if we change the `HOME` (linux) or `USERPROFILE` (windows) environmental variable and run a python script, it returns the new value as the user home when I try ``` os.environ['HOME'] os.exp ``` Is there any way to find the real user home directory without relying on the environmental variable? edit: Here is a way to find userhome in windows by reading in the registry, http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-win32/2008-January/006677.html edit: One way to find windows home using pywin32, ``` from win32com.shell import shell,shellcon home = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_PROFILE, None, 0) ```