How to import config file when calling script from somewhere in the system?

Question

lets assume i have a Folder "myProject" with a script "mySkript.py" and a config file "myConfig.py".

When calling the script from within "myProject" i would do something like this:

with open("myConfig") as configurationRawData:
    # do something

Now lets assume i don't call the script from "myProject" folder but from "User/desktop". In this case, the open command will not actually find "myConfig". I am looking to make my skript use it's own path as root path and inherit this property to every other script it might call during execution. Any ideas?

Answer 1

There is a way to do it :

import os

config_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),"myConfig.py")

with open(config_file) as configurationRawData:
    # do something

---

__file__ is a internal python variable that represents the path to the current file (something like C:\Users\user\documents\scripts\mySkript.py for windows per example). It leads to the file itself, it does not depends on working directory.

os.path.dirname(__file__) gives you the directory to the current file (C:\Users\user\documents\scripts\ for the example above).

os.path.join() builds a path like your os likes it, so it will produce C:\Users\user\documents\scripts\myConfig.py for the example above.

This will work whatever your operating system is (python handles it for you) and as long as your two files are in the same directory.