global .pdbrc on windows 7 not reachable out of the box

[mbyt]

BPO	20523
Nosy	@birkenfeld, @tjguk, @wiggin15, @zware, @zooba, @miss-islington
PRs	bpo-20523: pdb searches for .pdbrc in ~ instead of $HOME #11846 bpo-20523: pdb searches for .pdbrc in ~ instead of $HOME #11847 bpo-20523: pdb.Pdb can read the global ~/.pdbrc file on Windows 7 #11855 [3.7] bpo-20523: pdb searches for .pdbrc in ~ instead of $HOME (GH-11847) #15084 [3.8] bpo-20523: pdb searches for .pdbrc in ~ instead of $HOME (GH-11847) #15085
Files	pdb.diff: pdb diff

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2019-08-03.14:39:49.796>
created_at = <Date 2014-02-05.21:57:33.472>
labels = ['3.7', '3.8', '3.9', 'type-feature', 'library', 'OS-windows']
title = 'global .pdbrc on windows 7 not reachable out of the box'
updated_at = <Date 2019-08-03.14:39:49.795>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/mbyt'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2019-08-03.14:39:49.795>
actor = 'steve.dower'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2019-08-03.14:39:49.796>
closer = 'steve.dower'
components = ['Library (Lib)', 'Windows']
creation = <Date 2014-02-05.21:57:33.472>
creator = 'mbyt'
dependencies = []
files = ['33935']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 20523
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 6.0
messages = ['210349', '235815', '235900', '348924', '348925', '348927']
nosy_count = 7.0
nosy_names = ['georg.brandl', 'tim.golden', 'wiggin15', 'zach.ware', 'steve.dower', 'mbyt', 'miss-islington']
pr_nums = ['11846', '11847', '11855', '15084', '15085']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue20523'
versions = ['Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8', 'Python 3.9']

[mbyt]

The global .pdbrc file is determined by the %HOME% environment variable. However, this is not available out of the box on e.g. windows 7 systems. Here only %HOMEDRIVE% and %HOMEPATH% are defined.

Thus the usual approach to have a global .pdbrc file on windows is to define a %HOME% environment variable by hand. This could be avoided if the global .pdbrc would be determined by os.path.expanduser("~/.pdbrc"), which works on current windows and does the magic behind.

There are two possible approaches to improve this situation:

• explicitly mention in the docs that on windows a %HOME% varialbe need to be created manually
• patch pdb.py to use os.path.expanduser instead (see attached diff)

For reference, see also old discussion https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-October/349550.html.

[BreamoreBoy]

We have a patch to review or we need a doc patch, unless someone has a different idea to the approaches suggested by the originator. I prefer the idea of changing the code, manually changing environment variables just seems wrong to me, but I won't lose any sleep over it.

[zooba]

expanduser() sounds like the better choice here.

[zooba]

New changeset 7ea9a85 by Steve Dower (Timothy Hopper) in branch 'master':
bpo-20523: pdb searches for .pdbrc in ~ instead of $HOME (GH-11847)
7ea9a85

[miss-islington]

New changeset 1ff7dd6 by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.7':
bpo-20523: pdb searches for .pdbrc in ~ instead of $HOME (GH-11847)
1ff7dd6

[miss-islington]

New changeset 79af3bd by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.8':
bpo-20523: pdb searches for .pdbrc in ~ instead of $HOME (GH-11847)
79af3bd