README.md
1# go-homedir
2
3This is a Go library for detecting the user's home directory without
4the use of cgo, so the library can be used in cross-compilation environments.
5
6Usage is incredibly simple, just call `homedir.Dir()` to get the home directory
7for a user, and `homedir.Expand()` to expand the `~` in a path to the home
8directory.
9
10**Why not just use `os/user`?** The built-in `os/user` package requires
11cgo on Darwin systems. This means that any Go code that uses that package
12cannot cross compile. But 99% of the time the use for `os/user` is just to
13retrieve the home directory, which we can do for the current user without
14cgo. This library does that, enabling cross-compilation.
15