Python module needs to write files to a directory but permission is blocked

Question

This is my first time writing a python module so I don't know some customs. My module needs to write data and store it somewhere. I decided to do so in some nested folder underneath the location of my modules egg within site-packages.

However, when running the script on a computer after installing it via setup.py,

I'm getting errors when trying to create a directory. I managed to get around creating/reading from files by making all my

open('file.txt', 'r+') # into
open('file.txt', 'r') 
# and same respectively for writes.


# os.mkdir() is causing an IOError permissions denied.

But it still won't let me create directories! Via an IOError permissions denied.

NOTE: I'm aware that you can write/read anything from some special dirs, like /tmp, but I'd prefer to do it in the egg.

I feel that this task is a must do also, does anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

Application data should be stored under either %APPDATA%, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, or ~/.config, depending on the platform. Create a directory for the module within one of those locations. Or better yet, have the application tell you where your data should be located.