this is a quick summation of the code I'm trying to build // get home directory parsed_options home = parse_environment(desc, "HOME"); // add the relative path to the home directory making it a full path parsed_options rcfile = home + "/.koramarc"; // parse the config file store(parse_config_file(rcfile, desc), vm); honestly all I need to do is parse a config that's in hidden file relative to the users home directory. so if there's a better way that'd work lete me know. -- Caleb Cushing http://xenoterracide.blogspot.com