![list in the current directory. With listdir in os module you get the files and the folders in the current dir. import os arr = os.listdir() Looking in a directory. arr = os.listdir('c:\\files') with glob you can specify a type of file to list like this. import glob txtfiles = [] for file in glob.glob("*.txt"): txtfiles.append(file). Rick ross buffalo](/img/512x512/1493544961263.webp)
list in the current directory. With listdir in os module you get the files and the folders in the current dir. import os arr = os.listdir() Looking in a directory. arr = os.listdir('c:\\files') with glob you can specify a type of file to list like this. import glob txtfiles = [] for file in glob.glob("*.txt"): txtfiles.append(file)Introduction. On February 20, 2024, Broadcom issued a critical security advisory, VMSA-2024-0003, which addresses security vulnerabilities in the VMware …It seems that IDLE changes its current working dir to location of the script that is executed, while when running the script using cmd doesn't do that and it leaves CWD as it is. To change current working dir to the one containing your script you can use: import os os.chdir(os.path.dirname(__file__)) print(os.getcwd())Then os.makedirs () method will create all unavailable/missing directories in the specified path. ‘GeeksForGeeks’ and ‘Authors’ will be created first then ‘Nikhil’ directory will be created. Syntax: os.makedirs (path, mode = 0o777, exist_ok = False) Parameter: path: A path-like object representing a file system path.A mere os.getcwd () won't do anything visible: it retrieves the current working directory and discards it. Instead, you should do print (os.getcwd ()) Changing the current working directory only affects the current process (i. e., the Python program), but not its parent (the command prompt). So your command prompt keeps its cwd and …Current working directory: C:\Projects\Tryouts Script path is : C:\Projects\Tryouts\main.py Changing the Current Working Directory in Python If you want to change the current working directory in Python, use the chrdir() method. Syntax: os.chdir(path) Parameters: path: The path of the new directory in the string format.return(path) The use of this function is fairly simple - all you need is your path and number of directories up. print(dir_up(curDir,3)) # print 3 directories above the current one. The only minus is that it doesn't stop on …Then the steps to add environment variable PYTHONSTARTUP: For windows 8: From the Desktop, right-click the very bottom left corner of the screen to get the Power User Task Menu. From the Power User Task Menu, click System. Click the Advanced System Settings link in the left column. Under System variables, click New.How do I determine the current directory? A. Use os.getcwd () " after literally hours of searching. Ugh. – Karl Knechtel The syntax for the “not equal” operator is != in the Python programming language. This operator is most often used in the test condition of an “if” or “while” statement. The test c...list in the current directory. With listdir in os module you get the files and the folders in the current dir. import os arr = os.listdir() Looking in a directory. arr = os.listdir('c:\\files') with glob you can specify a type of file to list like this. import glob txtfiles = [] for file in glob.glob("*.txt"): txtfiles.append(file)The OS module provides functions for interacting with the operating system in Python and thus we first import this module. Then, we use the getcwd () to print out the working directory. cwd stands for Current Working Directory (CWD). # Python code to import os module: import os # Python code to print out the current working directory …Get the Directory of the Current Python Script using Inspect Module . In this example, we have used inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe()) which returns the path of …But be careful while applying this to other directory, like. files = [f for f in os.listdir(somedir) if os.path.isfile(f)] which would not work because f is not a full path but relative to the current directory. Therefore, for filtering on another directory, do os.path.isfile(os.path.join(somedir, f)) (Thanks Causality for the hint)Jan 21, 2011 · Return the name of the directory that is located just above the current working directory in Python using the os module. 0. Jul 7, 2015 · In python 3 all imports are absolute unless a relative path is given to perform the import from. You will either need to use an absolute or relative import. Absolute import: from parent.file import ClassName. Relative import: from . file import ClassName. # look for the module file in same directory as the current module. Then os.makedirs () method will create all unavailable/missing directories in the specified path. ‘GeeksForGeeks’ and ‘Authors’ will be created first then ‘Nikhil’ directory will be created. Syntax: os.makedirs (path, mode = 0o777, exist_ok = False) Parameter: path: A path-like object representing a file system path.I'm trying to get the current directory using the OS module, like that: directory=os.getcwd() ... How slicing in Python works. 5333. How do I add an empty directory to a Git repository? 3845. How do I get the current time in Python? 3466. How do I list all files of a directory? 7458.Jan 10, 2009 · As already pointed out by others, all the solutions above only change the working directory of the current process. This is lost when you exit back to the Unix shell. If desperate you can change the parent shell directory on Unix with this horrible hack: def quote_against_shell_expansion(s): import pipes. 18. After rereading the Python import documentation, the correct answer to my original problem is: To ensure that b imports a from its own package its just enough to write the following in the b: import a. Here is the quote from the docs: The submodules often need to refer to each other. For example, the surround module might use the echo module.Aug 1, 2023 · To switch the current working directory in Python to a different location, use the chdir () function from the os module and provide the absolute path as a string. The syntax is: os.chdir('[path]') To test how the function works, import the os module and print the current working directory. Change the location using the chdir () function and ... 5. The import system¶. Python code in one module gains access to the code in another module by the process of importing it. The import statement is the most common way of invoking the import machinery, but it is not the only way. Functions such as importlib.import_module() and built-in __import__() can also be used to invoke the …2 Answers. Sorted by: 16. Yes you can pass only the folder name to os.mkdir but then it'll create that folder in the current working directory. So you may have to change the current working directory again and again with the user or simply pass the whole path to os.mkdir if you don't want to do that.The built-in os module has a number of useful functions that can be used to list directory contents and filter the results. To get a list of all the files and folders in a particular directory in the filesystem, use os.listdir() in legacy versions of Python or os.scandir() in Python 3.x.os.scandir() is the preferred method to use if you also want to …What you want can be achieved with os.chdir () or with the subprocess named parameter cwd which changes the working directory immediately before executing a subprocess. For example, to execute ls in the root directory, you either can do. wd = os.getcwd() os.chdir("/") subprocess.Popen("ls") os.chdir(wd) or simply.7. In an IPython nb, is it possible to set programmatically the working directory to the directory of the notebook? For example, the following code will work in a regular .py file. import os # show working dir os.chdir (os.path.abspath ('/')) print "initial working directory:\t", os.getcwd () # get path of script file scriptPath = os.path ...The following is more of something that usually happens when your Python script is in a nested directory. You want to go one level up from the current working directory to maybe, let's say, load a file. The idea is to simply reformat the path string and prefix it with a '../'. So an example would be. '../current_directory/' + filenameTo get the current working directory(CWD), we can use the getcwd() method of the OS module. This method returns the path of the current working directory in the ...Feb 7, 2021 · We also learned about the Current Working Directory and the functions that are available in Python to access and modify the Current Working Directory. In addition, if you have any comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments section. With Pathlib (recommended after Python 3.5, the/a general solution that works not only in file.py files, but also in Jupyter (or other kind of) notebook and Python shell is: p = Path.cwd().resolve().parents[1] You only need to substitute (__file__) for cwd() (current working directory). Indeed it would even work just with: p = Path().resolve ...If the script directory is not available (e.g. if the interpreter is invoked interactively or if the script is read from standard input), path[0] is the empty string, which directs Python to search modules in the current directory first. Notice that the script directory is inserted before the entries inserted as a result of PYTHONPATH. Need a Django & Python development company in Sofia? Read reviews & compare projects by leading Python & Django development firms. Find a company today! Development Most Popular Em...Are you interested in learning Python but don’t have the time or resources to attend a traditional coding course? Look no further. In this digital age, there are numerous online pl...Python has become one of the most widely used programming languages in the world, and for good reason. It is versatile, easy to learn, and has a vast array of libraries and framewo...Dec 29, 2011 · This is slightly risky. If __file__ is a relative filename relative to the current working directory (e.g., setup.py), then os.path.dirname(__file__) will be the empty string. For this and similar concerns raised by John Jiang, ekhumoro's more general-purpose solution is strongly preferable. – The os module in Python provides a way of using operating system dependent functionality. It helps in performing various operations such as creating directories, deleting files, changing the current working directory, etc. To use the OS module, first, we need to import it using the import os statement. Here are two examples of how to use the OS ...The above output verified that the current directory had been changed to a new directory. That’s it from this blog! Conclusion. The “os.getcwd()” function is used to get the present Python working directory.Similarly, the “os.chdir()” function changes the current Python working directory.Using “os.getcwd(),” you can retrieve the main path to the current …The example shows all immediate subdirectories of the current directory. dirs = [e for e in path.iterdir() if e.is_dir()] We build a list of directories using Python list comprehension. The is_dir returns True for a directory entry. for dir in dirs: print(dir) #print(dir.parts[-1]) In a for loop, we print all the directories we have found.9 hours ago ... Instantly Download or Run the code at https://codegive.com title: understanding and retrieving the current working directory in python ...import os. print(os.getcwd()) Output. C:\Users\HP\Desktop\python. So we can easily get the path of our current working directly using this method. Now the question that may arise is this path is an absolute path or a relative path. As we get the path with respect to the root directory hence os. getcwd () method gives the absolute path.You can set the current working directory in Python using the os module, specifically the chdir () function. Here is an example code snippet: You can also use os.getcwd () to get the current working directory. import os # Get the current working directory current_directory = os.getcwd () print (current_directory) You can also use pathlib module ... Then the steps to add environment variable PYTHONSTARTUP: For windows 8: From the Desktop, right-click the very bottom left corner of the screen to get the Power User Task Menu. From the Power User Task Menu, click System. Click the Advanced System Settings link in the left column. Under System variables, click New.If the script directory is not available (e.g. if the interpreter is invoked interactively or if the script is read from standard input), path[0] is the empty string, which directs Python to search modules in the current directory first. Notice that the script directory is inserted before the entries inserted as a result of PYTHONPATH.work_dir = "path/to/working_directory" The use . import os path = os.join(work_dir, somefile.txt) If the files the python program uses are in a complex directory structure, then changing the working directory won't be a solution. Though when the programmer uses relative paths, it can be. In VS Code has a terminal where you can …I would like to change my working directory in Python. I am on Windows programming in the Sublime IDE. I am using Python 2.7. The path I would like, harvested directly from my windows explorer, is: \\CNYC19P20003D\khandler$\Documents\ShortSqueeze. I am aware of the function os.chdir("path"). However, it seems I am having issues with the fact ...2. Finding the Current Directory. The current working directory is the directory in which your Python script is currently executing. To find the current working directory in Python, you can use the os.getcwd() function. This function returns a string representing the current working directory (cwd). Example:Python has become one of the most popular programming languages in recent years, and its demand continues to grow. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced developer, having a ...Dec 2, 2022 · In this article, we will discuss how to get the current working directory in Python. Python’s os module provides a function to get the current working directory i.e. Copy to clipboard. os.getcwd() It returns a string containing the current working directory. For calling this function we need to import os module i.e. Copy to clipboard. import os. 7. In an IPython nb, is it possible to set programmatically the working directory to the directory of the notebook? For example, the following code will work in a regular .py file. import os # show working dir os.chdir (os.path.abspath ('/')) print "initial working directory:\t", os.getcwd () # get path of script file scriptPath = os.path ...Using the pathlib module, you can get the current working directory. Pass the file's name in Path () method. parent gives the logical parent of the path and absolute () gives the absolute path of the file. pathlib.Path ().absolute () gives the current working directory. I have a directory full of scripts (let's say project/bin).I also have a library located in project/lib and want the scripts to automatically load it. This is what I normally use at the top of each script: #!/usr/bin/python from os.path import dirname, realpath, sep, pardir import sys sys.path.append(dirname(realpath(__file__)) + sep + pardir + sep + "lib") # ...To get the current working directory using you can use the classmethod. >>> >>> Path.cwd () PosixPath ('/home/miguel'. As you can see, the output is different than the os.getcwd (). As I mentioned earlier, all paths follow the semantics of the underlying filesystem. In my case, I'm using Linux, so the output is a PosixPath.Jan 29, 2024 · We can find out the current working directory with the pwd command. There are several ways of finding the current working directory in Python. We can use the following methods: os.getcwd. pathlib.Path.cwd. os.path. Create a hard file link. Start a file with default application. Get absolute path of a file. Get name of current running Python script. Get directory name for a file. Working with directories. Print current working directory. Change working directory. Join directory paths.Calling os.unlink (path) or Path.unlink () will delete the file at path. Calling os.rmdir (path) or Path.rmdir () will delete the folder at path. This folder must be empty of any files or folders. Calling shutil.rmtree (path) will remove the folder at path, and all files and folders it contains will also be deleted.Jan 2, 2024 ... CWD returns the directory containing the notebook or script being run. CWD returns a directory representing the ephemeral storage volume ...Add a comment. 7. To set working directory permanently in: 1. Spyder IDE: Tools > Prefeences > Current working directory > the following directory 2. RStudio IDE: Tools > Global Options... > General > Default working directory (when not in a project) PS: Yes, we need to restart the application in both IDEs to take changes in effect. Share.Suppose my python code is executed a directory called main and the application needs to access main/2091/data.txt. how ... (file_name) #For accessing the file in a folder contained in the current folder file_name = os.path.join(file_dir, 'Folder1.1/same ... the working directory inside a script is the location you ran the ...I have a directory full of scripts (let's say project/bin).I also have a library located in project/lib and want the scripts to automatically load it. This is what I normally use at the top of each script: #!/usr/bin/python from os.path import dirname, realpath, sep, pardir import sys sys.path.append(dirname(realpath(__file__)) + sep + pardir + sep + "lib") # ...How Python ‘get current directory’ works. Let’s see the Python get current directory method in action. If you open a new code file, say in IDLE (Python’s built-in code editor), you can type this code: import os print(os.getcwd()) With “import os”, we are importing the os module into our program. With “print”, we are telling the ...Yes, but the current working directory has absolutely no relation to the directory your script lives in. Compare with os.chdir, which sets the current working directory; it does not move your script file to a new location on the hard drive. The initial working directory might be the same as the directory your script lives in, but not …If you really need to change to that directory, do something like. def test_foo (tmp_path): os.chdir (tmp_path) # If you're using Python 3.6 or later # or if you're on an older version: os.chdir (str (tmp_path)) but depending on the current directory is a code smell. Consider refactoring your code so it can run from anywhere.The current working directory is the directory in the file system that the current process is operating in. You’ll need to programmatically determine the current working directory if, for example, you want to create or open a file in the same directory as the script that’s being executed. ... Work with file and directory paths in Python ...Where, current working directory refers to the folder in which the Python script is operating. So, in this article we will discuss how we can get and change the current working directory in python. Get the Current Working Directory in Python : getcwd() method of the os module is used to get the absolute path of current working directory.How Python ‘get current directory’ works. Let’s see the Python get current directory method in action. If you open a new code file, say in IDLE (Python’s built-in code editor), you can type this code: import os print(os.getcwd()) With “import os”, we are importing the os module into our program. With “print”, we are telling the ...In Python, “strip” is a method that eliminates specific characters from the beginning and the end of a string. By default, it removes any white space characters, such as spaces, ta...Please note that in Python 3.6 directory is expected to be in bytes and then listdir will spit out a list of filenames also in bytes data type so you cannot run endswith directly on it. ... import glob import os #to get the current working directory name cwd = os.getcwd() #Load the images from images folder. for f in glob.glob('images\*.jpg ...Jun 2, 2006 ... Quick note to self on how to get the current working directory of in a Python script, like you have pwd (print working directory) on a ...In Finder, go to IDLE in Applications (in the Python folder) as if you wanted to open it. Right click and select "show package contents". Open Contents, then open Resources. In Resources, you'll see a file called idlemain.py. This file executes when you launch idle and sets, among other things, the working directory.Other way is to simply do this. cwd = os.getcwd () os.chdir ('c:\some\directory') subprocess.Popen ('tool.exe') os.chdir (cwd) This solution works if you want to rely on relative paths, for example, if your tool's location is c:\some\directory\tool.exe. cwd keyword argument for Popen will not let you do this. Some scripts/tools may rely on you ... Jan 6, 2020 · If you are on Windows/ using Anaconda3, go to Win Start ->Search for Jupyter Notebook (env). Click on it and the Jupyter opens up. On Jupyter webpage, on right hand side go to New -> Terminal and the terminal window opens up. In this terminal windows change the directory to the working directory, using cd command. import os print os.getcwd() # Prints the current working directory To set the working directory: os.chdir('c:\\Users\\uname\\desktop\\python') # Provide the new path hereJul 7, 2015 · In python 3 all imports are absolute unless a relative path is given to perform the import from. You will either need to use an absolute or relative import. Absolute import: from parent.file import ClassName. Relative import: from . file import ClassName. # look for the module file in same directory as the current module. If you’re on the search for a python that’s just as beautiful as they are interesting, look no further than the Banana Ball Python. These gorgeous snakes used to be extremely rare,...So when python script shall executed the current working directory (use os.getcwd() to get the path) As my relative path is relative to input_file_list.txt, that is "D:\Copyofconc", i have to change the current working directory to "D:\Copyofconc". So i have to use os.chdir('D:\Copyofconc'), so the current working directory shall be "D ...It is the script's directory that is added, not the current directory. If you turn inner_folder/ into a package then you can use python -m inner_folder.myscript in order to run the script while having app/ added to sys.path. +1: indeed, even with the import fixed, this is the real solution.The answers there are to either simplify things or to add package definitions. And the selected answer even says: "It is the script's directory that is added". However, my problem is really more simple: My script's directory ISN'T added. Basically, all the tutorials on the internet say: import mymodule.Python is a powerful and versatile programming language that has gained immense popularity in recent years. Known for its simplicity and readability, Python has become a go-to choi...Python is a powerful and versatile programming language that has gained immense popularity in recent years. Known for its simplicity and readability, Python has become a go-to choi...Feb 10, 2022 ... Getting the current folder and moving one or several levels up is possible in Python 3 with several different options: * os.chdir(".Feb 27, 2016 · Select your directory you want to have as home for your jupyter, and copy it with Ctrl + C, for example: C:\Users\username\Python Projects. Then on that line, paste it like this : c.NotebookApp.notebook_dir = 'C:\\Users\\username\\Python Projects'. Make sure to remove #, as it is as comment. 1 Answer. Sorted by: 5. You can implement it through two functions in the os and os.path modules. os.chdir changes the current working directory and os.path.dirname returns the directory name from a file path. __file__ contains the path of the currently running script. import os os.chdir (os.path.dirname (__file__)) print (os.getcwd ())Sep 15, 2023 ... The primary function for changing the working directory is os.chdir(path), where path is the directory you want to change to. You might also ...Open the IDLE.app bundle: in the Python 3.11 folder in Applications, open the IDLE.app application bundle by right clicking it and selecting Show Package Contents. In Contents>Resources you will find idlemain.py. This is the "Bootstrap script for IDLE as an application bundle." You will need sudo to edit this file.If you really need to change to that directory, do something like. def test_foo (tmp_path): os.chdir (tmp_path) # If you're using Python 3.6 or later # or if you're on an older version: os.chdir (str (tmp_path)) but depending on the current directory is a code smell. Consider refactoring your code so it can run from anywhere.Hi @Jako. Yes, for normal use cases locate works separately from the current working directory and is therefore unaffected by things like os.chdir. No, when used from an interactive Python session! It serves two functionalities: 1. The get_dir function, which will return the directory of the current script (or os.getcwd() when used ...To get the current working directory(CWD), we can use the getcwd() method of the OS module. This method returns the path of the current working directory in the ...May 6, 2023 · In Python, you can get and change (set) the current working directory with os.getcwd () and os.chdir (). The os module is part of the standard library, so no additional installation is necessary, but you need to import it. You can get the path of the current script file ( .py) with __file__. See the following article. Now is working, a long path to work with files and directories in Python for me, just starting. – Ohlwhal. Aug 5, 2020 at 22:01. Thanks for your feedback – Neo Anderson. Aug 5, 2020 at 22:11. Add a comment | 0 import os def parent_directory(): # Create a relative path to the parent # of the current working directory dir= os.getcwd ...
Sep 29, 2020 · You can get your current Python directory by using either the os.path or os.getcwd method. However, while os.getcwd, which is the more common method, only checks your current working directory, the os.path method can check both the current directory as well as the base path of your working directory. To get the base path of your Python working ... . Lfo summer girls
In today’s competitive job market, having the right skills can make all the difference. One skill that is in high demand is Python programming. Python is a versatile and powerful p...work_dir = "path/to/working_directory" The use . import os path = os.join(work_dir, somefile.txt) If the files the python program uses are in a complex directory structure, then changing the working directory won't be a solution. Though when the programmer uses relative paths, it can be. In VS Code has a terminal where you can …26. In the Python 3.6 or above, os.chdir () can deal with Path object directly. In fact, the Path object can replace most str paths in standard libraries. os. chdir (path) Change the current working directory to path. This function can support specifying a file descriptor. The descriptor must refer to an opened directory, not an open file.So you'd do join ('..','..','config') Instead of '..' one can use os.path.pardir . So it becomes: sys.path.append (os.path.abspath (os.path.join (os.path.pardir, 'config'))) Yo can only import modules that are visible by your environment. You can check the environment using this. As you will see sys.path is a list so you can append elements to ...5. The import system¶. Python code in one module gains access to the code in another module by the process of importing it. The import statement is the most common way of invoking the import machinery, but it is not the only way. Functions such as importlib.import_module() and built-in __import__() can also be used to invoke the …I'm going to make an alias which would run the script and thats why I have a problem. When running the script, I don't want to write a directory to where I want to create my folder. I want it to create in my terminals working directory. How do I "os.chdir()" to my terminals working directory. I have tried:You can set the current working directory in Python using the os module, specifically the chdir () function. Here is an example code snippet: You can also use os.getcwd () to get the current working directory. import os # Get the current working directory current_directory = os.getcwd () print (current_directory) You can also use pathlib module ... Jun 26, 2014 · Python adds the directory where the initial script resides as first item to sys.path: As initialized upon program startup, the first item of this list, path [0], is the directory containing the script that was used to invoke the Python interpreter. If the script directory is not available (e.g. if the interpreter is invoked interactively or if ... How can you find your current working directory while inside a Python shell? That won't find your current working directory in a script either. It'll find the directory the script is in. So, for example, if I'm in C:\Users\me, and I run C:\Python33\python D:\MyStuff\MyScript.py, the current working directory is …The . , which is passed as an argument to os.listdir() , signifies the current folder.I would like to change it so I do not have to explicitly tell it what directory it is in to write a new directory. This current approach works fine but requires the user to input the path. I saw the following New folder that is created inside the current directory and modified my script in the following wayAsked. Viewed 195 times. 1. I have code that gets the parent directory of the current file, this works when running in VScode but when I transfer the code to a Jupyter notebook it stops working. import pandas as pd import os from pathlib import Path import matplotlib.pyplot as plt cur_path = Path (os.path.dirname (__file__)) root_path = cur ...Output: The getcwd () method of the os module in Python, returns the current working directory of the process. The Python example, creates a file in the working directory only by using the file name and prints the whole path. The example also creates a directory and changes the working directory of the process to the newly created directory.I'm trying to get the current directory using the OS module, like that: directory=os.getcwd() ... How slicing in Python works. 5333. How do I add an empty directory to a Git repository? 3845. How do I get the current time in Python? 3466. How do I list all files of a directory? 7458.Jun 26, 2019 · The first setting sets the working directory to the python file path only if it is run in the terminal. However, the working directory will revert to the root directory if the code is run in the Output tab with CTRL+ALT+N . Other way is to simply do this. cwd = os.getcwd () os.chdir ('c:\some\directory') subprocess.Popen ('tool.exe') os.chdir (cwd) This solution works if you want to rely on relative paths, for example, if your tool's location is c:\some\directory\tool.exe. cwd keyword argument for Popen will not let you do this. Some scripts/tools may rely on you ... I'm going to make an alias which would run the script and thats why I have a problem. When running the script, I don't want to write a directory to where I want to create my folder. I want it to create in my terminals working directory. How do I "os.chdir()" to my terminals working directory. I have tried:1. In this post, the top answer explains how to (1) obtain the directory of the script being run, and (2) obtain the path of the working directory. However, I'm confused on the usage of __file__. BryanOakley even states to notice the double underscore of __file__, but I do not understand why. Essentially, what I am asking is if I wanted to use ...I want to create a file named current directory+folder+system date and time. I am getting the output as- D:\Komal\MyPrograms\Pkg\stemwordwww.yahoo.com42015-03-18 16-31 but I want to store my file named . www.yahoo.com42015-03-18 16-31 in folder stemword i.e require the …This is working as documented. Any paths specified in PYTHONPATH are documented as normally coming after the working directory but before the standard interpreter-supplied paths. sys.path.append() appends to the existing path. See here and here. If you want a particular directory to come first, simply insert it at the head of sys.path: Jan 22, 2013 · The OS module in python has a lot of functions to help with this. import os os.chdir ( path ) path being ".." to go up one directory. If you need to check where you are before/after a change of directory you can issue the getcwd () command: mycwd = os.getcwd () os.chdir ("..") #do stuff in parent directory os.chdir (mycwd) # go back where you ... .