Find the absolute path of an imported module

python python-module
Determinant picture Determinant · Sep 2, 2012 · Viewed 18.8k times · Source

How can I get the absolute path of an imported module?

Answer

Matthew Adams picture Matthew Adams · Sep 2, 2012

As the other answers have said, you can use __file__. However, note that this won't give the full path if the other module is in the same directory as the program. So to be safe, do something like this:

>>> import os
>>> import math
>>> os.path.abspath(math.__file__)
'/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/math.so'

Here's an example with a module I made called checkIP to illustrate why you need to get the abspath (checkIP.py is in the current directory):

>>> import os
>>> import checkIP
>>> os.path.abspath(checkIP.__file__)
'/Users/Matthew/Programs/checkIP.py'
>>> checkIP.__file__
'checkIP.py'

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