Only create userdir when explicitly requested

freqtrade/configuration/configuration.py

@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ class Configuration(object):
             config.update({'user_data_dir': str(Path.cwd() / "user_data")})
 
         # reset to user_data_dir so this contains the absolute path.
-        config['user_data_dir'] = create_userdata_dir(config['user_data_dir'])
+        config['user_data_dir'] = create_userdata_dir(config['user_data_dir'], create_dir=False)
         logger.info('Using user-data directory: %s ...', config['user_data_dir'])
 
         if 'datadir' in self.args and self.args.datadir:

freqtrade/configuration/directory_operations.py

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import logging
 from typing import Any, Dict, Optional
 from pathlib import Path
 
+from freqtrade import OperationalException
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -20,12 +21,26 @@ def create_datadir(config: Dict[str, Any], datadir: Optional[str] = None) -> str
     return str(folder)
 
 
-def create_userdata_dir(directory: str) -> Path:
+def create_userdata_dir(directory: str, create_dir=False) -> Path:
+    """
+    Create userdata directory structure.
+    if create_dir is True, then the parent-directory will be created if it does not exist.
+    Sub-directories will always be created if the parent directory exists.
+    Raises OperationalException if given a non-existing directory.
+    :param directory: Directory to check
+    :param create_dir: Create directory if it does not exist.
+    :return: Path object containing the directory
+    """
     sub_dirs = ["backtest_results", "data", "hyperopts", "hyperopt_results", "plot", "strategies", ]
     folder = Path(directory)
     if not folder.is_dir():
-        folder.mkdir(parents=True)
-        logger.info(f'Created user-data directory: {folder}')
+        if create_dir:
+            folder.mkdir(parents=True)
+            logger.info(f'Created user-data directory: {folder}')
+        else:
+            raise OperationalException(
+                f"Directory `{folder}` does not exist. "
+                "Please use `freqtrade create-userdir` to create a user directory")
 
     # Create required subdirectories
     for f in sub_dirs: