CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpathpickleos.path
zen29d
zen29d

Reputation: 59

how to check path/file exists or not in python?

I have two file in directory abc

test.py
hello.txt

File test.py:

import os.path

if os.path.exists('hello.txt'):
  print('yes')
else:
  print('no')

when execute test.py in same directory, the output is, as I'd expect, 'yes'

abc > python test.py

output: yes

but when try to execute form other directory 

~ > python ~/Desktop/abc/test.py

output: no

how to correct this

# the real case
if os.path.exists('token.pickle'):
    with open('token.pickle', 'rb') as token:
        creds = pickle.load(token)

it works when executing within directory abc but fails form outside.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1485

Answers (5)

danicotra
danicotra

Reputation: 1433

I see you already post an answer to your own question here

Anyway, I wanted to advice you there's no need to use os.chdir() for the purpose here really, simply do it like this:

# the real case

path_to_your_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)),"token.pickle")

if os.path.exists(path_to_your_file):
    with open(path_to_your_file, 'rb') as token:
        ...

P.S. If you're wondering, there's several good reason to prefer using os.path.join() over manual string concatenation, the main one being it makes your coding platform independent in the first place

Upvotes: 0

zen29d
zen29d

Reputation: 59

thanks, everyone, finally I found the solution, never thought that would be easy.... just change the working directory and voila๐ŸŽ‰ its work๐Ÿ™‚๐Ÿ™‚ใ€€ใ€€ใ€€

import os
...
script_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
os.chdir(script_path)
...
...

Upvotes: 1

Kalma
Kalma

Reputation: 157

well, if you do not know the complete path, this is much more difficult IMHO. I don't have any good, pythonic idea to do that!

To search for the file within your whole PC, use subprocess module and execute "find" command on linux (you're on linux, right?), catch the output, and ask if your file is there:

import subprocess

file_name = "test.txt"

sp = subprocess.Popen(["find", '/', "-name", file_name], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
output = sp.communicate()

found = False
for line in output:
    if file_name.encode() in line:
        found = True

print("Found:", found)

NOTE: to delimit the search replace "/" by the parent folder you expect the file to be in.

EDIT: On windows, though I could not test it, the command would be: "dir /s /p hello.txt", so the subprocess call would look like this: sp = subprocess.Popen(["cmd", "/c", 'dir', '/s', '/p', 'Links'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)

Upvotes: 0

partha biswas
partha biswas

Reputation: 242

In this case you need to search the file after walking through the directories and reading the contents. You might consider os.scandir() to walk through the directories [python 3.5]. https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0471/

Sample:

def find_file(path: str) -> str:
    for entry in scandir(path):
        if entry.is_file() and entry.name == 'token.pickle':
            return_path = f'{path}\{entry.name}'
            yield return_path
        elif entry.is_dir():
            yield from find_file(entry.path)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    for path in find_file('.'):
        with open(path, 'rb') as token:
            creds = pickle.load(token)

Upvotes: 0

Noah
Noah

Reputation: 614

Do a complete path, the tilda

~

specifies from where you "are right now"

to correctly specify it do the complete path. Easiest way to do this is go to file explorer, right click on the file, and press copy path. This should get you the complete path to the file which can be specified anywhere.

Please let me know if this helped!

Upvotes: 0

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