Don't crash if we can't find the user's home directory (#6806)

3 files changed, 24 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/doc/whatsnew/2/2.14/full.rst b/doc/whatsnew/2/2.14/full.rst
index 879097358..97797e8ad 100644
--- a/doc/whatsnew/2/2.14/full.rst
+++ b/doc/whatsnew/2/2.14/full.rst
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ What's New in Pylint 2.14.1?
 ----------------------------
 Release date: TBA
 
+* Don't crash if we can't find the user's home directory.
+
+  Closes #6802
 
 
 What's New in Pylint 2.14.0?
diff --git a/pylint/config/find_default_config_files.py b/pylint/config/find_default_config_files.py
index 595548285..36917a380 100644
--- a/pylint/config/find_default_config_files.py
+++ b/pylint/config/find_default_config_files.py
@@ -63,8 +63,12 @@ def find_default_config_files() -> Iterator[Path]:
         if Path(os.environ["PYLINTRC"]).is_file():
             yield Path(os.environ["PYLINTRC"]).resolve()
     else:
-        user_home = Path.home()
-        if str(user_home) not in ("~", "/root"):
+        try:
+            user_home = Path.home()
+        except RuntimeError:
+            # If the home directory does not exist a RuntimeError will be raised
+            user_home = None
+        if user_home is not None and str(user_home) not in ("~", "/root"):
             home_rc = user_home / ".pylintrc"
             if home_rc.is_file():
                 yield home_rc.resolve()
diff --git a/tests/config/test_find_default_config_files.py b/tests/config/test_find_default_config_files.py
index 0872c3d88..cf588bdd7 100644
--- a/tests/config/test_find_default_config_files.py
+++ b/tests/config/test_find_default_config_files.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import sys
 import tempfile
 from collections.abc import Iterator
 from pathlib import Path
+from unittest import mock
 
 import pytest
 from pytest import CaptureFixture
@@ -223,3 +224,17 @@ def test_cfg_has_config(content: str, expected: str, tmp_path: Path) -> None:
     with open(fake_cfg, "w", encoding="utf8") as f:
         f.write(content)
     assert _cfg_has_config(fake_cfg) == expected
+
+
+def test_non_existent_home() -> None:
+    """Test that we handle a non-existent home directory.
+
+    Reported in https://github.com/PyCQA/pylint/issues/6802.
+    """
+    with mock.patch("pathlib.Path.home", side_effect=RuntimeError):
+        current_dir = os.getcwd()
+        os.chdir(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(sys.executable)))
+
+        assert not list(config.find_default_config_files())
+
+        os.chdir(current_dir)