How to fix "vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set" error - run python script from PHP as user?

Question

Apache HTTP Server

I run the Python script from PHP . The script starts normally, but when it reaches the vncserver start lines , it cannot start it:

#!/usr/bin/env python3.8
# -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-

import time
import requests
from datetime import datetime
from pymongo import MongoClient
from multiprocessing import Pool
import json
import math 
import subprocess
import os
SCRIPT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
.
.
.
    ## VNC Display checks
    # Configure DISPLAY variable to VNC
    os.environ["DISPLAY"] = cfg["vnc_display"]
    if os.system("xhost >& /dev/null"):
        print("WARNING: No VNC display opened under %s. Running VNC Server and trying again" % (os.environ["DISPLAY"]))
        os.system("vncserver %s" % (os.environ["DISPLAY"]))
        time.sleep(5)
        if os.system("xhost >& /dev/null"):
            print("ERROR: No VNC display opened under %s. Cannot continue" % (os.environ["DISPLAY"]))
            return
.
.
.
if __name__ == "__main__":
    command_line_runner()

..throws an error:
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set
No VNC display opened under :1.
Running VNC Server and trying again.
ERROR: No VNC display opened under :1.
Cannot continue.

As I understand it , vncserver does not want to run with Apache user rights , but only as a user - the error is related to execution rights. Because if you run the script directly, on the command line, on behalf of the user, there are no errors and everything works fine.
QUESTION : how to run python script from PHP as user and get vncserver to start ?
I think that all the same, you need to somehow teach the script to work correctly with Apache rights , but I don’t know how to do it. Please suggest solutions. Thank you.

Answer 1

Did it like this:

.
.
.
from os.path import expanduser
HOME = expanduser("~")
.
.
.
os.environ["HOME"] = HOME