Getting the working directory if the script is a soft link

Question

I have two folders. Call them A and B.

A is populated with python code. Among them, function1.py.

B contains data, and a soft link (created using ln -s) to A/function1.py.

When I execute B/function1.py, pwd points to A, not B. How do I fix this?

• Nilton Moura: What do you mean by "pwd points to A, not B"? Do you call pwd Linux command from within function1.py? When you execute B/function1.py, you're actually executing A/function1.py, since B/function1.py is just a symbolic link.
• user16540390: The working directory (pwd) is the directory where you call the script from, not the path to the script. If you are in /var/run and you call /B/function1.py, the working directory is /var/run. The working directory doesn't change if the script is a soft link. You can change your current working directory with cd ../B before you run the script or you can change the working directory inside the script with os.chdir(path).

Answer 1

Removing the script name from the __file__

Solution 1: path: str = os.path.dirname(__file__)

Solution 2: path: str = os.path.sep.join(__file__.split(os.path.sep)[:-1])

Solution 1 works by just getting the parent directory of the current script path. Solution 2 works by removing the script name from the full script path. Also, if you're using windows, replacing os.altsep with os.sep in __file__ may be required!

Resolving softlinks in your path:

Check out the os.path package, there you will probably find a function for that. I am not really sure, but maybe try using os.path.realpath? If not, try os.path.abspath.

note

I didn't test any of this sadly cuz i am lazy, so it may not work!

• user16540390: The question is about the working directory, not about the file path.