title: Reading user-specific environment variables in Chef
body: <p>I'm new to Chef and Ruby and trying to understand how I can read an environment variable from a specific Linux/Windows user and use it to place a file.</p>
  
  <p>What I want to do is update our Oracle <code>tnsnames.ora</code> files for client and DB installations. </p>
  
  <p>These files may be in a directory like <code>C:\oracle</code> or <code>C:\Program Files\oracle</code> in Windows or <code>/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2/network/admin</code> or <code>/u01/app/oracle/producdt/10.2/network/admin</code> in Linux.  </p>
  
  <p>I can't be 100% sure I will know the exact location without reading an environment variable into the recipe and using it.</p>
  
  <p>I was reading about <code>#{ENV['HOME']}</code> but I can't quite figure out if that is the type of syntax I would like to use or not.</p>