This may seem like a newbie question, but it is not. Some common approaches don't work in all cases:

sys.argv[0]

This means using path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])), but this does not work if you are running from another Python script in another directory, and this can happen in real life.

__file__

This means using path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)), but I found that this doesn't work:

• py2exe doesn't have a __file__ attribute, but there is a workaround
• When you run from IDLE with execute() there is no __file__ attribute
• Mac OS X v10.6 (Snow Leopard) where I get NameError: global name '__file__' is not defined

Related questions with incomplete answers:

• Find path to currently running file
• Path to current file depends on how I execute the program
• How can I know the path of the running script in Python?
• Change directory to the directory of a Python script

I'm looking for a generic solution, one that would work in all above use cases.

Update

Here is the result of a testcase:

Output of python a.py (on Windows)

a.py: __file__= a.py
a.py: os.getcwd()= C:\zzz

b.py: sys.argv[0]= a.py
b.py: __file__= a.py
b.py: os.getcwd()= C:\zzz

a.py

#! /usr/bin/env python
import os, sys

print "a.py: sys.argv[0]=", sys.argv[0]
print "a.py: __file__=", __file__
print "a.py: os.getcwd()=", os.getcwd()
print

execfile("subdir/b.py")

File subdir/b.py

#! /usr/bin/env python
import os, sys

print "b.py: sys.argv[0]=", sys.argv[0]
print "b.py: __file__=", __file__
print "b.py: os.getcwd()=", os.getcwd()
print

tree

C:.
|   a.py
\---subdir
        b.py

You can't directly determine the location of the main script being executed. After all, sometimes the script didn't come from a file at all. For example, it could come from the interactive interpreter or dynamically generated code stored only in memory.

However, you can reliably determine the location of a module, since modules are always loaded from a file. If you create a module with the following code and put it in the same directory as your main script, then the main script can import the module and use that to locate itself.

some_path/module_locator.py:

def we_are_frozen():
    # All of the modules are built-in to the interpreter, e.g., by py2exe
    return hasattr(sys, "frozen")

def module_path():
    encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
    if we_are_frozen():
        return os.path.dirname(unicode(sys.executable, encoding))
    return os.path.dirname(unicode(__file__, encoding))

some_path/main.py:

import module_locator
my_path = module_locator.module_path()

If you have several main scripts in different directories, you may need more than one copy of module_locator.

Of course, if your main script is loaded by some other tool that doesn't let you import modules that are co-located with your script, then you're out of luck. In cases like that, the information you're after simply doesn't exist anywhere in your program. Your best bet would be to file a bug with the authors of the tool.

First, you need to import from inspect and os

from inspect import getsourcefile
from os.path import abspath

Next, wherever you want to find the source file from you just use

abspath(getsourcefile(lambda:0))

This solution is robust even in executables:

import inspect, os.path

filename = inspect.getframeinfo(inspect.currentframe()).filename
path     = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(filename))

I was running into a similar problem, and I think this might solve the problem:

def module_path(local_function):
   ''' returns the module path without the use of __file__.  Requires a function defined
   locally in the module.
   from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/729583/getting-file-path-of-imported-module'''
   return os.path.abspath(inspect.getsourcefile(local_function))

It works for regular scripts and in IDLE. All I can say is try it out for others!

My typical usage:

from toolbox import module_path
def main():
   pass # Do stuff

global __modpath__
__modpath__ = module_path(main)

Now I use _modpath_ instead of _file_.

You have simply called:

path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]))

instead of:

path = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0]))

abspath() gives you the absolute path of sys.argv[0] (the filename your code is in) and dirname() returns the directory path without the filename.