Change to a known directory name but unkown absolute path in Python

Question

I would like to change the cwd to a specific folder. The folder name is known; however, the path to it will vary.

I am attempting the following but cannot seem to get what I am looking for:

absolute_path = os.path.abspath(folder_name)
directory_path = os.path.dirname(absolute_path)
os.chdir(directory_path)

This does not do what I'm looking for because it is keeping the original cwd to where the .py file is run from. I've tried adding os.chdir(os.path.expanduser("~")) prior to the first code block; however, it just creates the absolute_path to /home/user/folder_name.

Of course if there is a simple import that I could use, I'll be open to anything.

What would be the correct way to get the paths of all folders with with a specific name?

Answer 1

def find_folders(start_path,needle):
   for cwd, folders, files,in os.walk(start_path):
       if needle in folders:
           yield os.path.join(cwd,needle)

for path in find_folders("/","a_folder_named_x"):
    print path

all this is doing is walking down your directory structure from a given start path and finding all occurances of a folder named needle

in the example it is starting at the root folder of the system and looking for a folder named "a_folder_named_x" ... be forwarned this could take a while to run if you need to search the whole system ...

Answer 2

You need to understand that abspath accepts a relative pathname (which might just be a filename), and gives you the equivalent absolute (full) pathname. A relative pathname is one that begins in your current directory; no searching is involved, and so it always points to one place (which may or may not exist).

What you actually need is to search down a directory tree, starting at ~ or whatever directory makes sense in your case, until you find a folder with the requested name. That's what @Joran's code does.