Get username, hostname and home directory using Python

For a variety of reason your Python app might want to know the username of the logged in user along with a few other details such as path to their home directory and their systems hostname.

In Python, you can use use getpass library to fetch these.

Get the username

Run the below to get the username

import getpass
username = getpass.getuser()

print(f"Hello {username}")

Output

On Linux you see

This will also work on Windows

Get the path to home directory

import os.path

homedir = os.path.expanduser("~")
print(homedir)

Output

On Linux

And on Windows

Get the hostname

import socket
hostname = socket.gethostname()
print(hostname)

Output

On Linux

And on Windows