%HOMEPATH% does not contain the drive name

[dokempf]

Checklist

• I added a descriptive title
• I searched open reports and couldn't find a duplicate

What happened?

In the absence of the working_dir key, on Windows, menuinst uses %HOMEPATH% as the default. However, I have stumbled over this on a system, where the home was not on the C: drive. In order to also get the drive, one would need to use %HOMEDRIVE%. When googling to find a solution, I also stumbled over a number of reports that these two variables may not be set in some circumstances.

I would therefore suggest to maybe use %USERPROFILE% for that purpose. Apparently, it is always set to a full path.

Conda Info

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Conda Config

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Conda list

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Additional Context

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[marcoesters]

There are two (not mutually exclusive) ways to go about this:

• We change the default to either %USERPROFILE% or %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%
• We render environment variables in working_dir

I think the latter should definitely be done. Whether %USERPROFILE%, which I think is %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Users\%USERNAME%, or %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% is the better default, I'm not quite sure yet.

I do think we should definitely implement the second point though. In that case, you could set working_dir to %USERPROFILE% in your recipe and it would work.

[dokempf]

I do think we should definitely implement the second point though. In that case, you could set working_dir to %USERPROFILE% in your recipe and it would work.

Wouldn't that work anyway? The rendering is delayed until execution, but Windows then does it. At least, that is what I manually tested by manipulating the shortcut.

If you want me to contribute a PR here, please let me know.

[marcoesters]

For the execution, yes, but looking at this issue, I found a small bug that creates and unwanted directory : https://github.com/conda/menuinst/blob/main/menuinst/platforms/win.py#L161-L162

I think from what I'm reading %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% is what's the "canonical" home directory and I am currently thinking that this should stay the default. You are right though that %HOMEDRIVE% needs to be added.

If you want me to contribute a PR here, please let me know.

You are welcome to do so if you have the time. I just assigned the issue to myself to fix it, but I'm happy to have you take over. Just let me know so we don't interfere with each other.

[dokempf]

If you're on it already, it sure is more efficient for you to do it. I just wanted to express my willingness to contribute.