[issue27263] IDLE sets the HOME environment variable breaking scripts

[Eryk Sun]

Eryk Sun added the comment:

This affects all Tkinter applications on Windows. For example, in Python 2.7:

    import Tkinter
    import ctypes
    libc = ctypes.CDLL('msvcr90')
    libc.getenv.restype = ctypes.c_char_p

    >>> libc.getenv(b"HOME")
    >>> root = Tkinter.Tk()
    >>> libc.getenv(b"HOME")
    'C:\\Users\\me'

TCL sets this environment variable in TclpSetVariables [1] and has since 1995 [2]. I don't think IDLE or any other Tkinter application should necessarily favor %USERPROFILE% over %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%, and the default shouldn't be changed at this point. Probably the behavior should be documented for Tkinter and IDLE.

[1]: https://github.com/tcltk/tcl/blob/core_8_6_4/win/tclWinInit.c#L502
[2]: https://github.com/tcltk/tcl/blob/core_8_6_4/changes#L1378

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components: +Tkinter, Windows
nosy: +eryksun, paul.moore, steve.dower, tim.golden, zach.ware
versions: +Python 2.7, Python 3.6

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue27263>
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