macOS Programmatic access to current user's folder

[Kurukuru]

Is it possible to open a file in the current user's home folder by doing something like (in C++):
ifstream fIn("/~/somefile.ext", ios::binary);

I know the code above does not work, but I wonder if there's anything like it available?

Or do you have to examine the HOME environment variable?

 

[robbieduncan]

What language/framework are you using? In Cocoa you want to look at NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains which can be used to return the path to the users home directory.

 

[Krevnik]

The reason "/~/somefile.ext" doesn't work is because "~" cannot have anything before it on Unix.

If you use "~/Library/Preferences/MyFile.ext", it will put the file in the current user's preferences folder. If you use "/~/Library/Preferences/MyFile.ext", it simply won't work.

This is supported on every API on OS X that takes a file path.