Question

I’m trying to open a file that doesn’t exist with this line:

x = open("~/tweetly/auth", 'w+')

That should open it if it exists, and then wipe content to begin to write.
If it doesn’t exist, it should create it…right?

It doesn’t. I get this error.

IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '~/tweetly/auth'

Ideas?

Answer 1

The ~ alias for the home directory is a shell-ism (something the shell does for you), not something you can use with the Python open command:

pax:~$ cd ~

pax:~$ ls qq.s
qq.s

pax:~$ python
Python 2.7.1+ (r271:86832, Apr 11 2011, 18:05:24) 
[GCC 4.5.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> open("~/qq.s")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '~/qq.s'

>>> open("./qq.s")
<open file './qq.s', mode 'r' at 0xb7359e38>

>>> _