Get absolute path of file in python

Question

I was searching how to get the absolute path of a file on python but haven't had much luck. here is my code

import os
directory = raw_input("What's the directory? ")
print "Reading files.."
listing = os.listdir(directory)
for fname in listing:
 with open(fname) as f:
 if "yes" in f.read():
 print f.name
f.close()

my problem is this... the listing is perfectly fine.. but when the listdir method passes the variable to the open method, the variable is passes without the absolute path, so it won't read the files because it is reading a file that has no path.. here is a sample of the error

What's the directory? /home/diego/test Reading files.. Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/diego/Documents/progra/python/antivirus/antivirus.py", line 14, in with open(fname) as f: IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'test'

Can anyone help me with it?

Thanks

• Łukasz Rogalski: possible duplicate of How to get an absolute file path in Python
• Marius: You probably need to add the directory to each fname, like open(os.path.join(directory, fname))
• Tim Biegeleisen: Not possible duplicate, a duplicate for sure. Use os.path.abspath("mydir/myfile.txt")
• Marius: I don't think this actually a duplicate, calling os.path.abspath(fname) won't help here because using the current code, Python can't find the file because fname is not a valid relative path.
• avim: Relax with the duplications, the absolute part of the question isn't his problem

Answer 1

from os.path import abspath
full_path = abspath(filename)

Answer 2

Ok, so your problem hasn't got anything to do with absolute paths. The problem is that you're trying to open a file that exists in another directory using only it's filename. Use os.path.join to create the complete file name and use that:

for fname in listing:
 full_name = os.path.join(directory, fname)
 with open(full_name) as f:
 if "yes" in f.read():
 print f.name

• Diego Velez: the file exists in that directory, I created the file but the path is not passed through the method. [Elementary]$ pwd /home/diego/test [Elementary]$ ls test
• Raniz: When you tell python to open(fname) it will look for the file in the directory where you're running your script - not the directory you typed into the prompt. That is, instead of trying to open /home/diego/test/test it tries to open /home/diego/Documents/progra/python/antivirus/test because you only told it to open "test"
• Diego Velez: you are right.. and how can I use the path reading my variable "directory"
• Raniz: I explained that in my answer: use os.path.join(directory, fname) and you'll get "/home/diego/test/test"