LGUG2Z/komorebi · critical

there is no home directory

Error message

there is no home directory

What it means

In komorebi-bar's `main`, before the bar starts, the config home directory is resolved the same way as in the bar module: `KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME` is read, falling back to `dirs::home_dir()` with `.expect("there is no home directory")`. This panics at startup when neither the env var nor the OS home directory can be resolved, preventing the process from starting at all.

Source

Thrown at komorebi-bar/src/main.rs:169

        }
    }

    color_eyre::install()?;

    if std::env::var("RUST_LOG").is_err() {
        unsafe {
            std::env::set_var("RUST_LOG", "info");
        }
    }

    tracing::subscriber::set_global_default(
        tracing_subscriber::fmt::Subscriber::builder()
            .with_env_filter(EnvFilter::from_default_env())
            .finish(),
    )?;

    let home_dir: PathBuf = std::env::var("KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME").map_or_else(
        |_| dirs::home_dir().expect("there is no home directory"),
        |home_path| {
            let home = home_path.replace_env();

            assert!(
                home.is_dir(),
                "$Env:KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME is set to '{home_path}', which is not a valid directory"
            );

            home
        },
    );

    if opts.quickstart {
        let komorebi_bar_json = include_str!("../../docs/komorebi.bar.example.json").to_string();
        std::fs::write(home_dir.join("komorebi.bar.json"), komorebi_bar_json)?;
        println!(
            "Example komorebi.bar.json file written to {}",
            home_dir.display()

View on GitHub (pinned to e0709f02bf)

Solutions

  1. Set `KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME` to a valid directory before invoking the binary (e.g. `$Env:KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME = "$Env:USERPROFILE\.config\komorebi"`).
  2. Ensure `USERPROFILE` (Windows) or `HOME` (Unix) is present and correct in the launching environment.
  3. Launch the bar from a regular user shell / via the documented komorebi startup path rather than a bare service context.
  4. Library-side: return a startup error instead of an expect panic so users get an actionable message.

Example fix

// before
let home_dir: PathBuf = std::env::var("KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME").map_or_else(
    |_| dirs::home_dir().expect("there is no home directory"),
    |home_path| { /* ... */ },
);
// after
let home_dir: PathBuf = std::env::var("KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME").map_or_else(
    |_| dirs::home_dir().ok_or_else(|| {
        anyhow!("there is no home directory; set KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME to your komorebi config directory")
    })?,
    |home_path| { /* ... */ },
);
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// check before invoking the binary (PowerShell)
if (-not $Env:KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME -and -not $Env:USERPROFILE) {
    throw "No home directory resolvable: set KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME or USERPROFILE"
}

Type guard

fn has_resolvable_home() -> bool {
    std::env::var_os("KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME").is_some() || dirs::home_dir().is_some()
}

Try / catch

# launch wrapper that supplies a fallback home
if (-not $Env:KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME) {
    if (-not $Env:USERPROFILE) { throw "USERPROFILE missing; cannot start komorebi-bar" }
    $Env:KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME = "$Env:USERPROFILE\.config\komorebi"
}
& komorebi-bar

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Executing the komorebi-bar binary where `KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME` is unset and `dirs::home_dir()` returns None — i.e. `USERPROFILE`/`HOME` absent from the process environment at process start.

Common situations: Starting the bar from a stripped-environment context (Windows service, scheduled task, SSH session without a profile), CI/container runs with no USERPROFILE, or a corrupted user profile so the home dir lookup fails.

Understand the failure class

Background: "environment variable is not set" and "Missing keys in environment" errors: what missing required env var messages mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of LGUG2Z/komorebi@e0709f02bf (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d7cc04273a10f8c3. Report an issue: GitHub.