# homedir-polyfill [](https://www.npmjs.com/package/homedir-polyfill) [](https://npmjs.org/package/homedir-polyfill) [](https://npmjs.org/package/homedir-polyfill) [](https://travis-ci.org/doowb/homedir-polyfill) [](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/doowb/homedir-polyfill) > Node.js os.homedir polyfill for older versions of node.js. Please consider following this project's author, [Brian Woodward](https://github.com/doowb), and consider starring the project to show your :heart: and support. ## Install Install with [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/): ```sh $ npm install --save homedir-polyfill ``` ## Usage ```js var homedir = require('homedir-polyfill'); console.log(homedir()); //=> /Users/doowb ``` ## Reasoning This library is a polyfill for the [node.js os.homedir](https://nodejs.org/api/os.html#os_os_homedir) method found in modern versions of node.js. This implementation tries to follow the implementation found in `libuv` by finding the current user using the `process.geteuid()` method and the `/etc/passwd` file. This should usually work in a linux environment, but will also fallback to looking at user specific environment variables to build the user's home directory if neccessary. Since `/etc/passwd` is not available on windows platforms, this implementation will use environment variables to find the home directory. In modern versions of node.js, [os.homedir](https://nodejs.org/api/os.html#os_os_homedir) is used. ## About <details> <summary><strong>Contributing</strong></summary> Pull requests and stars are always welcome. For bugs and feature requests, [please create an issue](../../issues/new). Please read the [contributing guide](contributing.md) for advice on opening issues, pull requests, and coding standards. </details> <details> <summary><strong>Running Tests</strong></summary> Running and reviewing unit tests is a great way to get familiarized with a library and its API. You can install dependencies and run tests with the following command: ```sh $ npm install && npm test ``` </details> <details> <summary><strong>Building docs</strong></summary> _(This project's readme.md is generated by [verb](https://github.com/verbose/verb-generate-readme), please don't edit the readme directly. Any changes to the readme must be made in the [.verb.md](.verb.md) readme template.)_ To generate the readme, run the following command: ```sh $ npm install -g verbose/verb#dev verb-generate-readme && verb ``` </details> ### Related projects You might also be interested in these projects: [parse-passwd](https://www.npmjs.com/package/parse-passwd): Parse a passwd file into a list of users. | [homepage](https://github.com/doowb/parse-passwd "Parse a passwd file into a list of users.") ### Contributors | **Commits** | **Contributor** | | --- | --- | | 19 | [doowb](https://github.com/doowb) | | 2 | [martinheidegger](https://github.com/martinheidegger) | ### Author **Brian Woodward** * [GitHub Profile](https://github.com/doowb) * [Twitter Profile](https://twitter.com/doowb) * [LinkedIn Profile](https://linkedin.com/in/woodwardbrian) ### License Copyright © 2016 - 2019, [Brian Woodward](https://github.com/doowb). Released under the [MIT License](LICENSE). *** _This file was generated by [verb-generate-readme](https://github.com/verbose/verb-generate-readme), v0.8.0, on February 21, 2019._