Which environment variable points to the current user's home directory?

The environment variable that points to the current user's home directory is HOME. This variable is automatically set for each user session and contains the path to the user's home directory, typically something like /home/username on a Linux system. This allows applications and the shell to easily reference the user's home directory without needing to explicitly specify the full path each time.

The USER variable, although it contains the username of the current user, does not indicate the location of the home directory. The PATH variable is used to define the directories in which the shell looks for executable files. The SHELL variable identifies the current user's default shell program, such as Bash or Zsh, but also does not provide any information regarding the user's home directory. Therefore, HOME is the correct choice, as it directly refers to the home directory of the current user.