Module directory

[Alex Martelli]

"Gilles Lenfant" <glenfant at nospam-e-pack.net> wrote in message
news:8pams8$8br$1 at reader1.imaginet.fr...
> Alex,
>
> Thanks for the pointer but:
> import os.path
> print os.path.dirname(__file__)
> Returns a name error on __file __ that is an attribute of a module and
does
> not take the current module as default module when not specified.

As I already indicated to Gilles in email, the "main script" is not a
module; the __file__ is a module attribute.  sys.path[0] is where
you'll find the path that was given to python for it to find the
"main script" from; e.g., empty, if it found it in the current
directory (or got it from stdin...).  os.path.abspath() will change
a relative path into an absolute one (Gilles tells me this does not
work on NT, with Python 1.5.2, when the relative path is empty;
it does work on 2.0, and I don't have a 1.5.2 around any more
to check.  But clearly, the workaround is obvious if this is indeed
a bug on some 1.5.2 versions).


Alex