Question

How to remove path related problems in python?

For e.g. I have a module test.py inside a directory TEST

**test.py**
import os
file_path = os.getcwd() + '/../abc.txt'

f = open(file_path)
lines = f.readlines()
f.close

print lines

Now, when I execute the above program outside TEST directory, it gives me error:-

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "TEST/test.py", line 4, in ?
    f = open(file_path)
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'abc.txt'

how to resolve this kind of problem. Basically this is just a small example that I have given up.

I am dealing with a huge problem of this kind.

I am using existing packages, which needs to be run only from that directory where it exists, how to resolve such kind of problems, so that I can run the program from anywhere I want.

Or able to deal with the above example either running inside TEST directory or outside TEST directory.

Any help.?

Answer 1

I think the easiest thing is to change the current working directory to the one of the script file:

import os
os.chdir(os.path.dirname(__file__))

This may cause problems, however, if the script is also working with files in the original working directory.