bpo-28334: netrc() now uses expanduser() to find .netrc file (GH-4537)

Previously, netrc.netrc() was raised an exception if $HOME is not set.

Authored-By: Dimitri Merejkowsky <dimitri.merejkowsky@tanker.io>

1 files changed, 8 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/Doc/library/netrc.rst b/Doc/library/netrc.rst
index 64aa3ac7c8..3d29ac49b9 100644
--- a/Doc/library/netrc.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/netrc.rst
@@ -20,8 +20,10 @@ the Unix :program:`ftp` program and other FTP clients.
 
    A :class:`~netrc.netrc` instance or subclass instance encapsulates data from  a netrc
    file.  The initialization argument, if present, specifies the file to parse.  If
-   no argument is given, the file :file:`.netrc` in the user's home directory will
-   be read.  Parse errors will raise :exc:`NetrcParseError` with diagnostic
+   no argument is given, the file :file:`.netrc` in the user's home directory --
+   as determined by :func:`os.path.expanduser` -- will be read.  Otherwise,
+   a :exc:`FileNotFoundError` exception will be raised.
+   Parse errors will raise :exc:`NetrcParseError` with diagnostic
    information including the file name, line number, and terminating token.
    If no argument is specified on a POSIX system, the presence of passwords in
    the :file:`.netrc` file will raise a :exc:`NetrcParseError` if the file
@@ -32,6 +34,10 @@ the Unix :program:`ftp` program and other FTP clients.
 
    .. versionchanged:: 3.4 Added the POSIX permission check.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.7
+      :func:`os.path.expanduser` is used to find the location of the
+      :file:`.netrc` file when *file* is not passed as argument.
+
 
 .. exception:: NetrcParseError
 
@@ -82,4 +88,3 @@ Instances of :class:`~netrc.netrc` have public instance variables:
    punctuation is allowed in passwords, however, note that whitespace and
    non-printable characters are not allowed in passwords.  This is a limitation
    of the way the .netrc file is parsed and may be removed in the future.
-