Get the current script file's full directory path in Python
David Y.
—The Problem
How can I access the absolute path of the directory containing the current script file in Python? For example, if my script is /home/user/scripts/runner.py, I would like the output home/user/scripts.
The Solution
We can do this using the special __file__ variable along with Python’s built-in library for filesystem path operations, pathlib. For example:
import pathlib script_directory = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.resolve() print(script_directory)
The __file__ variable contains the absolute path of the currently executing script. Following the example above, this would be /home/user/scripts/runner.py. Our code creates a Path object from this value and accesses its parent attribute – this will be the script’s containing directory. We then use the resolve method to make it an absolute path.
The final call to resolve() is technically only necessary in Python versions prior to 3.9. Before version 3.9, the __file__ variable could contain either an absolute or relative path to the current script, depending on how it was called. Since 3.9, __file__ will always return an absolute path.
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