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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

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  • 1
    possible duplicate of How to get an absolute file path in Python Commented Apr 28, 2015 at 5:28
  • 2
    You probably need to add the directory to each fname, like open(os.path.join(directory, fname)) Commented Apr 28, 2015 at 5:28
  • Not possible duplicate, a duplicate for sure. Use os.path.abspath("mydir/myfile.txt") Commented Apr 28, 2015 at 5:29
  • 2
    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. Commented Apr 28, 2015 at 5:31
  • 1
    Relax with the duplications, the absolute part of the question isn't his problem Commented Apr 28, 2015 at 5:32

2 Answers 2

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4 
from os.path import abspath

full_path = abspath(filename)
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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
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4 Comments

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
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"
you are right.. and how can I use the path reading my variable "directory"
I explained that in my answer: use os.path.join(directory, fname) and you'll get "/home/diego/test/test"

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