Home Directory On Windows

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Onorio Catenacci

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May 6, 2016, 12:15:48 PM5/6/16
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Quick Pro Tip:

Apparently on Windows, the "~" to refer to the home directory doesn't work correctly. And it doesn't throw any sort of error to let you know that it doesn't work correctly so it will simply silently fail. Here's a bit of code I just hacked together to work around this issue (FWIW):

home_dir =
  case (:os.type()) do
    {:win32,_} -> System.get_env("UserProfile")
    {:unix,_} -> "~"
  end


You can see the issue in this way:

1.) Fire up iex

2.) iex(1)> File.mkdir_p!("~/bogus")
:ok

3.) PS C:\Users\ocatenacci> dir b*


    Directory: C:\Users\ocatenacci


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----        7/16/2015   3:14 PM                Babou
-a----       11/20/2015   3:39 PM           7606 boot.bat

4.) iex(2)> home = System.get_env("UserProfile")
"C:\\Users\\ocatenacci"
iex(3)> File.mkdir_p!("#{home}/bogus")
:ok

5.) PS C:\Users\ocatenacci> dir b*


    Directory: C:\Users\ocatenacci


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----        7/16/2015   3:14 PM                Babou
d-----         5/6/2016  12:12 PM                bogus
-a----       11/20/2015   3:39 PM           7606 boot.bat


I hadn't actually checked this on Unix but I'd be shocked were it a problem.  The only real annoyance to this is that no error is thrown--the directory simply isn't created.  
I can file an issue if it's wanted.  Just wanted to make sure those few of us who use windows are aware of the issue.

--
Onorio


Onorio Catenacci

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May 6, 2016, 12:45:16 PM5/6/16
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And, of course, after I post that, I spot System.user_home/0. So this would be even better yet:

home_dir = System.user_home

I guess the upshot is that you can't rely on "~" on Windows. I don't mind that it doesn't work; it's the fact that it doesn't give any indication that it won't work that bothers me.

--
Onorio

José Valim

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May 6, 2016, 12:50:13 PM5/6/16
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The behavior you described is also the behavior on UNIX. You must expand paths with Path.expand if you want entries like "~" to be expanded.
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José Valim
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Founder and Director of R&D

Onorio Catenacci

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May 6, 2016, 1:28:01 PM5/6/16
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Oh--that's good to know José.  I had just assumed that Unix wouldn't have that issue since Windows seems to be such a fertile hunting ground for odd behaviors. 


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Dmitry Belyaev

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May 12, 2016, 4:26:03 AM5/12/16
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The feature of expanding ~ belongs to bash, not Linux itself.
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Best wishes,
Dmitry Belyaev

Onorio Catenacci

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May 12, 2016, 1:51:24 PM5/12/16
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Thanks for the clarification @Dmitry.  I tend to conflate bash and Linux which is a mistake of course.

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José Valim
Skype: jv.ptec
Founder and Director of R&D

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