- Python get user home directory
- Answer by Presley Wilkinson
- Answer by Rome Leach
- example
- Answer by Maximiliano Proctor
- Answer by Cal Patel
- Answer by Aislinn Stein
- Answer by Deborah Kline
- Answer by Ali Palacios
- How to find the real user home directory using Python?
- Using os module
- Example — Home Directory Path
- Output
- Example — File Inside Home Directory
- Output
- Example — ~ Substitution
- Output
- Using pathlib module
- Example — Home Directory Path
- Output
- Example — File Inside Home Directory
- Output
- Example — ~ Substitution
- Output
- How to get the home directory in Python
- Use os module to get the Home Directory
- Use the pathlib module to get the Home Directory
- Conclusion
Python get user home directory
How to get the home directory in Python,In this article, we will learn how to get the path of the home directory in Python. We will use two built-in functions to get the home directory., Get The Home Directory ,© 2021 Studytonight Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
os module provides os.path.expanduser(‘~’) to get the home directory in Python. This also works if it is a part of a longer path like ~/Documents/my_folder/. If there is no ~ in the path, the function will return the path unchanged. This function is recommended because it works on both Unix and Windows. It returns the argument with an initial component of (tilt) ~ or ~user replaced by the user’s home address.
import os print(os.path.expanduser('~'))
The pathlib module provides path.home() to get the home directory in Python. This function works fine if your Python version is Python 3.4+. It returns a new path object having the user’s home directory.
from pathlib import Path print(Path.home())
Answer by Presley Wilkinson
13 I wonder why nobody else mentioned it in this question, but if you need to know where another user’s home directory is you can use os.path.expanduser(‘~username’). Probably applies only for Linux though. – Max Jun 28 ’18 at 11:56 ,Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search., 3 This is marked a duplicate of How to find the real user home directory using python, but I voted to reopen because this answer works on Python 3 and the older answer does not. – Dour High Arch Jun 17 ’20 at 18:40 ,I need to get the location of the home directory of the current logged-on user. Currently, I’ve been using the following on Linux:
You want to use os.path.expanduser.
This will ensure it works on all platforms:
from os.path import expanduser home = expanduser("~")
If you’re on Python 3.5+ you can use pathlib.Path.home():
from pathlib import Path home = str(Path.home())
Answer by Rome Leach
How to get the home directory in Python?,If you’re on Python 3.4+, you can also use pathlib module to get the home directory. ,How to change the owner of a directory using Python?,How to find if a directory exists in Python?
To get the homedir in python, you can use os.path.expanduser(‘~’) from the os module. This also works if its a part of a longer path like ~/Documents/my_folder/. If there is no ~ in the path, the function will return the path unchanged. You can use it like −
import os print(os.path.expanduser('~'))
You can also query the environment variables for the HOME variable −
import os print(os.environ['HOME'])
example
from pathlib import Path print(Path.home())
Answer by Maximiliano Proctor
from os.path import expanduser home = expanduser("~")
Answer by Cal Patel
I need to get the location of the home directory of the current logged-on user. Currently, I’ve been using the following on Linux:,However, this does not work on Windows. What is the correct cross-platform way to do this?, How to get the home directory in Python ,94232/how-to-get-the-home-directory-in-python
I need to get the location of the home directory of the current logged-on user. Currently, I’ve been using the following on Linux:
Answer by Aislinn Stein
Got it! But…what if the user is a bit of a nonconformist and likes to rename their folders. It would probably be a good idea to check to ensure that this Downloads folder exists. To do this we can use the os.path.isdir method.,Line 37, asks if the user wants to try another folder location and offers a yes or no (y/n) option.,Finally, we have the catch-all for those with chaotic, anti-establishment personalities who chose not to type ‘y’ or ‘n’ or their variants.,Because if another user on another computer tries to use your program they will start getting errors because their home directory might be something else like:
If you are creating a program for a user where you want to store or use a file in the users home directory, it is not as easy as simply preparing a fixed file location like:
Answer by Deborah Kline
if you need long hostname for example hostname -f use: lhostname = socket.getfqdn(),Use socket.gethostname,Use os.path.expanduser (h/t Bachsau) or os.environ,I’m Eliot and this is my notepad for programming topics such as JavaScript, Python, Emacs, etc. more
import getpass username = getpass.getuser() print(username)
Answer by Ali Palacios
On Python 3.5 and higher, you can get the path of the user’s operating system (OS) home directory by using the built-in pathlib library:,An alternative to pathlib that is available on all Python 3 versions is the built-in os.path library. You can use os.path.expanduser to get the home directory of the current user:,If you already have a string path like ~/Documents/myfile.txt where you want to replace ~ with the home directory path, you can use .expanduser():,The safe way to build paths is using os.path.join(), but if you already have a string path like ~/Documents/myfile.txt where you want to replace ~ with the home directory path, you can just pass it in directly to .expanduser():
from pathlib import Path home_dir = Path.home() print( f'Path: < home_dir >!' )
How to find the real user home directory using Python?
On a multiuser operating system, a home directory is a file system location that holds the files specific to a particular user.
A login directory is another name for a home directory.You may obtain the home directory using Python in a number of ways.
Using os module
The os.path.expanduser() function in Python provides the most straightforward method for retrieving the user home directory across all platforms. The Python os module offers os.path.expanduser(«) to retrieve the home directory. This also functions if it is a part of a longer path. The function will return the path unchanged if there is no ~ in the path.
Example — Home Directory Path
Following is an example to find the home directory using os.path.expanduser() function −
import os home_directory = os.path.expanduser( '~' ) print( home_directory )
Output
Following is an output of the above code −
Example — File Inside Home Directory
Use os.path.join to create the path C:\Users\Lenovo\Downloads\Works −
import os home_directory = os.path.expanduser( '~' ) path = os.path.join( home_directory, 'Documents', 'mysql_access' ) print( path )
Output
Following is an output of the above code −
C:\Users\Lenovo\Documents\mysql_access
Example — ~ Substitution
If you already have a string path, such as C:\Users\Lenovo\Downloads\Works, where you wish to replace with the home directory path, you can put it in directly to.expanduser() instead of using the safe way to generate paths, which is os.path.join() −
import os path = os.path.expanduser('~\Documents\mysql_access') print( path )
Output
Following is an output of the above code −
C:\Users\Lenovo\Documents\mysql_accessy
Using pathlib module
The pathlib module in Python can also be used to obtain the user’s home directory.
Example — Home Directory Path
Following is an example to find the home directory path.home() function −
from pathlib import Path home_directory = Path.home() print( f'Path: home_directory> !' )
Output
Following is an output of the above code −
Example — File Inside Home Directory
Using.joinpath, you can also quickly create paths inside the user’s home directory () −
from pathlib import Path path = Path.home().joinpath( 'Documents', 'mysql_access' ) print(path)
Output
Following is an output of the above code −
C:\Users\Lenovo\Documents\mysql_access
Example — ~ Substitution
Use.expanduser() if you already have a string path, such as /Documents/mysql_access, where you want to replace with the path to your home directory −
from pathlib import Path path_string = '~\Documents\mysql_access' path = Path(path_string).expanduser() print(path)
Output
Following is an output of the above code −
C:\Users\Lenovo\Documents\mysql_access
How to get the home directory in Python
In this article, we will learn how to get the path of the home directory in Python. We will use two built-in functions to get the home directory.
The home directory contains multiple files for a given user of the system. Look at the two below scripts to get the home directory in Python. We will look at two different modules of Python such as the os module and pathlib module.
Use os module to get the Home Directory
os module provides os.path.expanduser(‘~’) to get the home directory in Python. This also works if it is a part of a longer path like ~/Documents/my_folder/. If there is no ~ in the path, the function will return the path unchanged. This function is recommended because it works on both Unix and Windows. It returns the argument with an initial component of (tilt) ~ or ~user replaced by the user’s home address.
import os print(os.path.expanduser('~'))
Use the pathlib module to get the Home Directory
The pathlib module provides path.home() to get the home directory in Python. This function works fine if your Python version is Python 3.4+. It returns a new path object having the user’s home directory.
from pathlib import Path print(Path.home())
Conclusion
In this article, we learned two different ways to get the home directory of a user’s system in Python. One way was using os.path.expanduser(‘~’) and another way was pathlib.Path.home() . Do check your script to avoid errors.