How to get the directory path of a Python 3 script from within itself

One of the best way to reference files in Python scripts is to based the file path on the directory where the Python script resides in. This will allow us to always reference our files correctly no matter where our Python script is being executed.

This post documents the Python 3 code that I often used to get the directory path of a Python 3 script from within itself.

Python 3 code to get the directory path of the running script

To get the directory path of a Python 3 script, I will typically write the following code: 

import os
scriptDirectory = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))

I will first import the os module. With the os module imported, I can then use the realpath function of the os.path module on the __file__ attribute to get the file path of the current Python 3 script. I then use the dirname function to get the directory where the current Python 3 script resides on.

About Clivant

Clivant a.k.a Chai Heng enjoys composing software and building systems to serve people. He owns techcoil.com and hopes that whatever he had written and built so far had benefited people. All views expressed belongs to him and are not representative of the company that he works/worked for.