# About "couldn't find HOME environment" problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Radiant CMS\ **Created:** [April 26, 2007, 8:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-couldnt-find-home-environment-problem/92979 "2007-04-26T08:35:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keita)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 8:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-couldnt-find-home-environment-problem/92979/1 "2007-04-26T08:35:08Z")
Hi, Some few people (including me) reported “couldn’t find HOME environment” problem in this ML and trac(for example ticket #500). Ticket #500 was closed by the reason “This is an issue with your server setup. It’s not a problem with Radiant.”, but I don’t think so. I believe this is because lib/plugins/extension\_patches/lib/generator\_base\_extension.rb does “require ‘rails\_generator’”. Dispatchers(.cgi, .fcgi and .rb) of Radiant don’t need this file and I think these must not load rails\_generator. The problem happens to people using CGI or Apache(or Lighttpd)/fast-cgi in most cases because HOME environment is not a standard CGI metavariable. I think the solution is that move lib/plugins/extension\_patches/lib/generator\_base\_extension.rb to lib/generators/generator\_base\_extension.rb and load it in script/generate etc. Is it right? I am not familiar with rails, sorry if I am wrong. * * * Keita Y. ---
**Author:** ![keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keita)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-couldnt-find-home-environment-problem/92979/2 "2007-04-26T17:23:54Z")
keita wrote: > standard CGI metavariable. > How does generator\_base\_extension.rb affect the HOME environment > variable? Does the default Rails generator set the HOME environment > variable in environment.rb? I don’t believe it does. So again this isn’t > a problem with Radiant. It’s a problem with the way your hosting > environment is configured. We could certainly add a few lines to environment.rb that were commented out like this: # Depending on how your envoronment is set up you may need to uncomment # the following line and enter the correct path to your home directory: #ENV[‘HOME’] = ‘/path/to/your/home/directory’ Would this be helpful? – John L. [http://wiseheartdesign.com](http://wiseheartdesign.com) ---
**Author:** ![keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keita)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-couldnt-find-home-environment-problem/92979/3 "2007-04-26T17:50:01Z")
John, I had this very same problem last night and the only way to solve it was to use a line just like you suggested: ENV[‘HOME’] = ‘/home/xyz/’ My environment is Litespeed 3.03 running on Centos. Took me a while to figure it out. Maybe a _gotcha_ section in the install docs would help. Sincerely, AEM ---
**Author:** ![keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keita)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 10:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-couldnt-find-home-environment-problem/92979/4 "2007-04-27T10:09:26Z")
I performed the following - cd ~user/myRadiantApp - ‘unset HOME’ and verified it was gone - ‘echo ~’ returns /var/www/vhosts/myDomain - ‘pwd’ returns /var/www/vhosts/myDomain/myRadiantApp - ‘emacs test1.rb’ and pasted in your code - ‘ruby test1.rb’ ran with no errors It is not very clear to me where home should be. My Fedora Core 4 system running Plesk 8.1 seems to automatically set HOME when ‘su user’. I do not see HOME as providing any useful information. As far as I can see, the only thing that matters is where myRadiantApp is. For example, I could have put myRadiantApp under httpdocs. Instead I setup my system is set up as follows /var/www/vhosts/myDomain/ \<----- ENV[‘HOME’] normally set by Linux |—httpdocs/ -----\>ln -s /var/www/vhosts/myDomain/myRadiantApp/public httpdocs |—myRadiantApp/ |—public/ | |—dispatch.fcgi |—vendor/ |-radiant (I froze radiant so all application code owned by same user/permissions) I do not think you can count on where HOME is relative to myRadiantApp before I unset HOME linux has set it to /var/www/vhosts/myDomain ’ ---
**Author:** ![keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keita)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-couldnt-find-home-environment-problem/92979/5 "2007-04-27T14:57:11Z")
On 4/27/07, keita [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > 1. It is radiant issue that Radiant’s dispatcher loads > rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator.rb, and other rails applications’ > dispatchers don’t load rails\_generator.rb. > > 2. I believe dispatchers don’t need to generate any code and must not. I must agree with you, Keita. Nice writeup ---
**Author:** ![keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keita)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 8:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-couldnt-find-home-environment-problem/92979/6 "2007-04-27T08:35:14Z")
Hi John, Thank you for reading my mail. but I can’t agree server configuration causes this problem. I explain more details. First, CGI and Apache/fast-cgi doesn’t set HOME variable if you don’t set SetENV. So dispatchers in these doesn’t know HOME in most cases. Webrick or Mongrel users are O.K. because know HOME in most cases. I agree that this is a server specific and configuration issue. Radiant doesn’t need to care it. > How does generator\_base\_extension.rb affect the HOME environment > variable? generator\_base\_extension.rb gets HOME environment as follows(radiant 0.6.0 / rails 1.2.3): (lib/plugins/extension\_patches/lib/generator\_base\_extension.rb) require ‘rails\_generator’ (rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator.rb) require ‘rails\_generator/lookup’ Rails::Generator::Base.send(:include, Rails::Generator::Lookup) (rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator/lookup.rb:51) Rails::Generator::Lookup.included (rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator/lookup.rb:98) Rails::Generator::Lookup::ClassMethods.use\_component\_sources! (rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator/lookup.rb:25) Dir.user\_home If ENV[‘HOME’] is nil (this is the case of CGI and Apache/fast-cgi), it calls File.expand\_path ‘~’. But File.expand\_path needs to know HOME, check it by the following commands: unset HOME ruby -e ‘File.expand\_path “~”’ This is the reason of the error message (but this isn’t the root cause of the problem, I think). so, if rails dispatchers(CGI, Apache/fast-cgi) load rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator.rb, then happen the error. > Does the default Rails generator set the HOME environment > variable in environment.rb? No. Rails generator(like script/generate) doesn’t read config/environment.rb but config/boot.rb. This problem is about dispatchers(.fcgi, .cgi, .rb), not generator. I believe normally rails applications don’t need to set HOME in environment.rb. I checked Mephisto, Typo and Beast. Such rails applications don’t need to set HOME in CGI and Apache/fast-cgi because these dispatchers don’t require rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator.rb. I think rails generators are for spitting out Ruby code. Why do radiant’s dispatchers need to generate new code? I can’t understand the advantage and I believe dispatchers don’t need to generate any code. If it is right, this is the waste misloading problem of Radinat::Initializer. Radinat::Initializer.run(:process, &config) in config/environment.rb loads lib/plugins/extension\_patches/init.rb and it requires lib/plugins/extension\_patches/lib/generator\_base\_extension.rb. I think this is the root cause of the problem. Please try to reproduce the problem by unsetting HOME and exec the following code: require “pp” begin require ‘config/environment.rb’ rescue Exception pp $@ end Summary of my opinion: 1. I agree that ENV[‘HOME’] == nil is server specific(CGI, Apache/fast-cgi) and hosting configuration issue. So radiant doesn’t need to care it. 2. rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator.rb need to know HOME. 3. It is radiant issue that Radiant’s dispatcher loads rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator.rb, and other rails applications’ dispatchers don’t load rails\_generator.rb. 4. I believe dispatchers don’t need to generate any code and must not. 5. If 4 is true, the cause of this problem is waste loading of generator\_base\_extension.rb and rails/railties/lib/rails\_generator.rb for dispatchers. Generators like script/generate need to requires rails\_generator.rb and dispatchers don’t. For above reasons, I conclude this is a problem of radiant. Is it right? My arguments is based on the assumption of 4, so I am sorry for wasting your time if this assumption is wrong. I don’t think of the advantage that dispatchers act as generator because I am not familiar with rails. * * * Keita Y. ---
**Author:** ![keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@keita](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keita)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-couldnt-find-home-environment-problem/92979/7 "2007-04-30T21:06:23Z")
keita wrote: > For above reasons, I conclude this is a problem of radiant. Is it > right? My arguments is based on the assumption of 4, so I am sorry for > wasting your time if this assumption is wrong. I don’t think of the > advantage that dispatchers act as generator because I am not familiar > with rails. OK, I see what you are saying now. Please reopen the ticket and submit a patch for it if you can. – John L. [http://wiseheartdesign.com](http://wiseheartdesign.com)