[New-bugs-announce] [issue5471] os.path.expanduser('~') doesnt works correctly when HOME is '/'

[pancake]

New submission from pancake <pancake at nopcode.org>:

When the HOME path is just '/' python says that the home path is ""
(zero length string)

I was able to reproduce this issue in 2.5.2 and 2.6 (no idea about 3.0)

Here's an example:

$ HOME=/ python -c 'import os;print os.path.expanduser("~")'

$ HOME=/tmp python -c 'import os;print os.path.expanduser("~")'
/tmp

$ HOME=a python -c 'import os;print os.path.expanduser("~")'
a

------8<----------

I just used "if !os.path.isdir(os.path.expanduser('~')):" check in
my application to avoid messing around the resulting paths when the
application runs.

The correct response should be '/' instead of ''.

----------
components: None
message_count: 1.0
messages: 83445
nosy: pancake
nosy_count: 1.0
severity: normal
status: open
title: os.path.expanduser('~') doesnt works correctly when HOME is '/'
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.6

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue5471>
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