Fixed #6556: Corrected doc on how Distutils looks for its user configuration file under Windows

2 files changed, 9 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/Doc/install/index.rst b/Doc/install/index.rst
index b1b9468..c67ccee 100644
--- a/Doc/install/index.rst
+++ b/Doc/install/index.rst
@@ -706,7 +706,8 @@ Notes:
 (2)
    On Unix, if the :envvar:`HOME` environment variable is not defined, the user's
    home directory will be determined with the :func:`getpwuid` function from the
-   standard :mod:`pwd` module.
+   standard :mod:`pwd` module. This is done by the :func:`os.path.expanduser`
+   function used by Distutils.
 
 (3)
    I.e., in the current directory (usually the location of the setup script).
@@ -721,9 +722,10 @@ Notes:
    1.5.2 installation under Windows.
 
 (5)
-   On Windows, if the :envvar:`HOME` environment variable is not defined, no
-   personal configuration file will be found or used.  (In other words, the
-   Distutils make no attempt to guess your home directory on Windows.)
+   On Windows, if the :envvar:`HOME` environment variable is not defined,
+   :envvar:`USERPROFILE` then :envvar:`HOMEDRIVE` and :envvar:`HOMEPATH` will
+   be tried. This is done by the :func:`os.path.expanduser` function used
+   by Distutils.
 
 
 .. _inst-config-syntax:
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index a8a738d..2fb04a4 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -1783,6 +1783,9 @@ Build
 Documentation
 -------------
 
+- Issue #6556: Fixed the Distutils configuration files location explanation
+  for Windows.
+
 - Issue #2235: the C API function PyObject_HashNotImplemented and its
   interaction with the tp_hash slot (added in 2.6b2) are now documented