How to get current directory in python

Get current directory Python

In this python tutorial, you will learn how to get current directory, also python get parent of current directory in python, Python: can’t open file ‘manage.py’: [errno *] no such file or directory and Python check if directory exists.

Get current directory Python

Example:

After writing the above code (get current directory Python), Ones you will print “directory_path” then the output will appear as “My current directory is E:\project-python“. Here, we used getcwd() for getting the current working directory which is the full path, and basename is used for getting directory name.

You can refer to the below screenshot get current directory Python.

Python get parent of current directory

To get the parent directory we will use the OS module which will interact with the operating system. The os.path.dirname() method in python is used to get the directory name from the path.

Example:

After writing the above code (python get parent of current directory), Ones you will print “parent” then the output will appear as “Current directory C:\Users\User\Documents\workspace Parent directory C:\Users\User\Documents “. Here, we get the parent directory.

You can refer to the below screenshot for python get parent of current directory.

Python: can’t open file ‘manage.py’: [errno *] no such file or directory

We get this error when the file is in any sub-directory, then it will give you the error “can’t open file ‘manage.py’: [errno *] no such file or directory” in python.

Example:

After writing the above code (python: can’t open file ‘manage.py’: [errno *] no such file or directory). Once you will run the program by writing “python manage.py runserver” then you will get this error a “ Python.exe: can’t open file ‘manage.py’: [errno *] no such file or directory ”. Here, the error occurs because of the directory.

You can refer to the below screenshot for can’t open file ‘manage.py’: [errno *] no such file or directory.

To solve this error you have to change the directory by writing “cd add” the directory in which the “manage.py” file is present and then you will be able to run the program.

Example:

After writing the above code, Once you will write “ python manage.py runserver ” then the output will appear as “ rose tulip ”. Now, the manage.py file is available at the root of the folder. And the error is resolved.

You can refer to the below screenshot python: can’t open file ‘manage.py’: [errno *] no such file or directory

Python check if directory exists

To check if a directory exists, we will use the python exists() method to check whether a specific file or directory exists or not. We will first import os module and os.path sub module as os.path.exists(path).

Example:

After writing the above code (python check if directory exists), Ones you will print “check_path” then the output will appear as ” True “. Here, we check if a path exists or not, if the path exists it will return a boolean value true otherwise it will return false.

You can refer to the below screenshot python check if directory exists

You may like following Python tutorials:

In this tutorial, we learned how to get current directory, also we have seen python get parent of current directory in Python, Python: can’t open file ‘manage.py’: [errno *] no such file or directory and Python check if directory exists.

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How to get current directory in Python?

Table of Contents Hide

In this article, we will take a look at how to get current directory in Python. The current directory is nothing but your working directory from which your script is getting executed.

Getting the Current Working Directory in Python

The os module has a getcwd() function using which we can find out the absolute path of the working directory.

Syntax: os.getcwd()

Parameter: None

Return Value: Returns the string which contains the absolute path of the current working directory.

Below is an example to print the current working directory in Python

Output

Get the path of the script file in Python

If you want to get the path of the current script file, you could use a variable __file__ and pass it to the realpath method of the os.path module.

Example to get the path of the current script file

Output

Changing the Current Working Directory in Python

If you want to change the current working directory in Python, use the chrdir() method.

Syntax: os.chdir(path)

Parameters:

path: The path of the new directory in the string format.

Returns: Doesn’t return any value

Example to change the current working directory in Python

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Learn how to get current directory (or path) in Python using pathlib and os modules

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Using the os Module to Get the Current Directory

First thing you need to do is to import the module.

Then, you just need call the getcwd function.

And that is it! As you can see, the function returns a string. This is not very flexible, what if you want to list all the files in that directory? You will have to call it on os functions again.

The os module is pretty ancient and I wouldn’t recommend using it nowadays. In the following section, I’m going to show you the modern way of getting the current working directory in Python.

Getting the Current Working Directory Through the pathlib Module

The pathlib module was proposed in 2012 and added to Python in the 3.4 version. The idea was to provide an object-oriented API for filesystem paths. This module provides classes that represent the filesystem paths with semantics appropriate for different operating systems. Also, Path objects are immutable and hashable, which helps prevent programming errors caused by mutability.

To get the current working directory using pathlib you can use the classmethod cwd from the Path class. But first, you need to import it.

Them, you can call the method.

Path.cwd Under the Hood

Great question! Path does some magic behind the scenes before creating the object. It implements the __new__ magic method and calls os to determine the underlying operating system. Check the implementation.

Conclusion

That’s it for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed this brief article.

How to get the current directory in Python?

In this short tutorial, let us look at how you could use python to get the current directory and how to change the working directory.

In case you are here only for the solution of getting the current directory in Python, use this link.

Table of Contents

What are directories and how do they work?

In case you are new to programming, directories are nothing but folders. These directories are present inside a root folder eg: C:\ or D:\ and each directory could contain files or subdirectories.

To retrieve a file in Python, you need to know the exact path to reach the file, in Windows, you can view a particular file’s path by right-clicking the File-> Properties-> General-> Location.

Similarly, to run a script, the working directory needs to be set to the directory containing the script. However, while trying to run multiple scripts or while handling files the Current Working Directory (CWD) is important.

Python would not be able to access the files if they aren’t in the CWD. It is in these scenarios that the Python ‘get current directory’ command helps you know which directory you are in currently.

Python get current directory:

To return the directory you are currently in, we use the OS module to interact with the operating system. Under the OS module, we use the os.getcwd() method to return the path of the current directory.

Syntax of os.getcwd:

Code for python get current directory:

Python change directory

Similar to the os.getcwd method we used in Python to get the current directory, we use the chdir() methods in the os module to change the current directory.

The current directory is changed to retrieve files or run scripts that are present in other directories.

Get directory of current Python script

In this article, we will cover How to Get and Change the Current Working Directory in Python. While working with file handling you might have noticed that files are referenced only by their names, e.g. ‘GFG.txt’ and if the file is not located in the directory of the script, Python raises an error. So, How is it done?

The concept of the Current Working Directory (CWD) becomes important here. Consider the CWD as the folder, the Python is operating inside. Whenever the files are called only by their name, Python assumes that it starts in the CWD which means that a name-only reference will be successful only if the file is in the Python’s CWD.

Note: The folder where the Python script is running is known as the Current Directory. This is not the path where the Python script is located.

What is the OS module in python?

Python provides an OS module for interacting with the operating system. This module comes under Python’s standard utility module. All functions in the os module raise OSError in the case of invalid or inaccessible file names and paths, or other arguments that have the correct type but are not accepted by the operating system.

Method 1: Using os.getcwd() method

The os.getcwd() method is used for getting the Current Working Directory in Python. The absolute path to the current working directory is returned in a string by this function of the Python OS module.

Syntax of os.getcwd() method

Parameter: No parameter is required.

Return Value: This method returns a string which represents the current working directory.