How can I find script's directory with Python?

Jonathan picture Jonathan · Feb 8, 2011 · Viewed 489.3k times · Source

Consider the following Python code:

import os
print os.getcwd()

I use os.getcwd() to get the script file's directory location. When I run the script from the command line it gives me the correct path whereas when I run it from a script run by code in a Django view it prints /.

How can I get the path to the script from within a script run by a Django view?

UPDATE:
Summing up the answers thus far - os.getcwd() and os.path.abspath() both give the current working directory which may or may not be the directory where the script resides. In my web host setup __file__ gives only the filename without the path.

Isn't there any way in Python to (always) be able to receive the path in which the script resides?

Answer

Czarek Tomczak picture Czarek Tomczak · Feb 19, 2012

You need to call os.path.realpath on __file__, so that when __file__ is a filename without the path you still get the dir path:

import os
print(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)))