# Can't run any program in my environment: \`homedir(): no such file or directory\`

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cant-run-any-program-in-my-environment-homedir-no-such-file-or-directory/75893>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [February 6, 2022, 7:41am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cant-run-any-program-in-my-environment-homedir-no-such-file-or-directory/75893 "2022-02-06T07:41:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pxeger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pxeger/32/33549_2.png) [@pxeger](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pxeger)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 7:41am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cant-run-any-program-in-my-environment-homedir-no-such-file-or-directory/75893/1 "2022-02-06T07:41:12Z")

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I’m running Julia in a very minimal Linux container environment with a largely read-only filesystem. The system is based on Arch Linux, and Julia was just installed from Arch’s repositories (`pacman -Syu julia`, version `1.7.1`). Whenever I try to run Julia on anything, even an empty program file, I get the following error message:

```julia
fatal: error thrown and no exception handler available.
InitError(mod=:Base, error=Base.IOError(msg="homedir(): no such file or directory (ENOENT)", code=-2))
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc5929406ac)
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc59293f0ad)
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc592a4fab4)
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc592b41291)
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc592b413c8)
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc5a9b3be66)
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc5a9b22de5)
julia_init at /usr/bin/../lib/julia/libjulia-internal.so.1 (unknown line)
jl_repl_entrypoint at /usr/bin/../lib/julia/libjulia-internal.so.1 (unknown line)
main at julia (unknown line)
__libc_start_main at /usr/bin/../lib/libc.so.6 (unknown line)
_start at julia (unknown line)

```

I think this must be to do with the strange environment I’m running Julia in, but I can’t decipher the error message to work out what I’ve done wrong. Can anyone suggest what this might mean, so I can try to work around the limitations?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pxeger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pxeger/32/33549_2.png) [@pxeger](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pxeger)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 9:58am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cant-run-any-program-in-my-environment-homedir-no-such-file-or-directory/75893/2 "2022-02-06T09:58:15Z")

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Figured it out: I need to set the `HOME` environment variable to the path of a directory which exists.