alibaba/open-code-review · error

resolve home dir: %w

Error message

resolve home dir: %w

What it means

This error wraps os.UserHomeDir() failures that occur when the JSONL session writer opens its session file. The library stores review sessions under ~/.opencodereview/<sessions>/<encoded-repo>, so it must resolve the user's home directory first. If that resolution fails, no session file can be created and open() aborts with this wrapped error.

Source

Thrown at internal/session/persist.go:106

	// Replace separators with -
	p = strings.ReplaceAll(p, "/", "-")
	p = strings.ReplaceAll(p, "\\", "-")

	// Replace colons (from Windows drive letters)
	vol = strings.ReplaceAll(vol, ":", "_")

	// Handle edge case where path was only separators or volume name
	result := vol + p
	if result == "" {
		return "empty"
	}
	return result
}

func (jw *jsonlWriter) open() error {
	home, err := os.UserHomeDir()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("resolve home dir: %w", err)
	}

	sessionDir := filepath.Join(home, ".opencodereview", sessionSubDir, encodeRepoPath(jw.repoDir))
	if err := os.MkdirAll(sessionDir, 0700); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("create session dir: %w", err)
	}

	filename := filepath.Join(sessionDir, jw.sessionID+".jsonl")
	f, err := os.OpenFile(filename, os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY|os.O_TRUNC, 0600)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("open session file: %w", err)
	}

	jw.file = f
	jw.writer = bufio.NewWriter(f)
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5cf97d0d15)

Solutions

1. Set the HOME environment variable to a writable directory (e.g. export HOME=/root or HOME=/tmp) before invoking the tool
2. Run the process as a user that exists in /etc/passwd with a valid home directory
3. If in Docker, add ENV HOME=/root to the image or pass -e HOME=... at runtime
4. Verify with `go env` or a quick `os.UserHomeDir()` test that home resolution succeeds in the target environment

Example fix

// before (failing shell)
cron: ocr review ...
// after
 HOME=/root ocr review ...  # or set HOME in the crontab/service unit

if os.Getenv("HOME") == "" {
    if _, err := os.UserHomeDir(); err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("HOME must be set: %w", err)
    }
}

if err := runOCR(); err != nil {
    var pe *fs.PathError
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "resolve home dir") {
        log.Fatalf("Set HOME to a writable directory: %v", err)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: newJSONLWriter -> open() calls os.UserHomeDir() and it returns an error: $HOME is unset in the environment and no passwd entry exists for the current user (typical in cron jobs, Docker containers, or bare CI runners running as a non-login user).

Common situations: Running `ocr` inside a Docker container without HOME set; systemd services with a minimal Environment=; CI jobs executing as a uid with no home directory; Go cross-runtime environments where user.Current() cannot read /etc/passwd.

Related errors

• resolve home dir: %w
• cannot determine home directory: %w
• read background file %q: %w
• background file %q is a directory, not a file
• resolve LLM endpoint: %w

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/open-code-review@5cf97d0d15 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/27782a96c2596c1a. Report an issue: GitHub.