Get system folder paths in Go?

Question

Is it possible to get the path of system folders in Go, in a cross-platform way? eg. temp folders, "document" folders, etc.

I found ioutil.TempFolder/File but they do something different. Any idea?

Answer 1

There's currently no way to access standard system folders in a cross-platform way. The Home directory though can be access using the user package:

u, _ := user.Current()
fmt.Println(u.HomeDir)

Answer 2

Besides the methods Luke mentioned, on Windows you can get some of the paths from environment variables. Same applies, to some extent, to Unix ($HOME, etc.).

Answer 3

A built-in option doesn't exist yet. Your best bet is to open an issue and submit a feature request.

In the meantime you can add support yourself by using platform specific +build flags. With that you have a couple of options:

1. Use the os package to get the information for each system, possibly through the shell.
2. Use cgo with existing C / C++ methods. See this answer, which explains how to get this information using C++ for Windows.

It may also be helpful to read the source code of the os package to see how platform-specific information is obtained. This could help you devise a way to get this information, and perhaps submit a patch to be included.

Answer 4

For the OS's temp directory, as stated by Bayu, there is a built-in function os.TempDir() string to get the os specific temp directory:

// TempDir returns the default directory to use for temporary files.
//
// On Unix systems, it returns $TMPDIR if non-empty, else /tmp.
// On Windows, it uses GetTempPath, returning the first non-empty
// value from %TMP%, %TEMP%, %USERPROFILE%, or the Windows directory.
// On Plan 9, it returns /tmp.
//
// The directory is neither guaranteed to exist nor have accessible
// permissions.
func TempDir() string {
    return tempDir()
}

which is actually used by the ioutil.TempDir(dir, pattern string) (string, error) function if you provide an empty string for the dir parameter. Check out the 5th and 6th lines:

// TempDir creates a new temporary directory in the directory dir.
// The directory name is generated by taking pattern and applying a
// random string to the end. If pattern includes a "*", the random string
// replaces the last "*". TempDir returns the name of the new directory.
// If dir is the empty string, TempDir uses the
// default directory for temporary files (see os.TempDir).
// Multiple programs calling TempDir simultaneously
// will not choose the same directory. It is the caller's responsibility
// to remove the directory when no longer needed.
func TempDir(dir, pattern string) (name string, err error) {

Answer 5

In the year 2020, I am trying to get similar things, but only for temporary directory cross-platform. When I found this thread and read some answers, I almost make a conclusion that it is not possible.

But after a few further research, I found that go already have it. Just like pointed by the accepted answer, it stands inside os package. Based on this documentation: https://golang.org/pkg/os/#TempDir, we can get it by calling: TempDir() function.

If someone trying to look at another OS system directories path, and stumbled upon in this thread, my suggestion, please just try to have a few further research. Looks like currently go have more complete functions regarding OS system directories.