Python : Getcwd And Pwd If Directory Is A Symbolic Link Give Different Results

If my working directory is a symbolic link, os.getcwd() and os.system('pwd') do not give the same result. I would like to use os.path.abspath('.') to get the full path of my workin

Solution 1:

If you want to use os.system(), use os.system("/bin/pwd -L") to get the logical path for the current working directory.

If running from a bash shell just use "$PWD", or from python use os.environ["PWD"] without having to fork a process with os.system().

But both of these solutions assume you're in the directory where the file is.

Building on the interface from Eric H:

import os,subprocess
defabspath(pathname):
    '''Return logical path (not physical) for pathname using Popen'''if pathname[0]=="/":
        return pathname
    lpwd = subprocess.Popen(["/bin/pwd","-L"],stdout=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True).communicate()[0].strip()
    return(os.path.join(lpwd,pathname))

defabspathenv(pathname):
    '''Return logical path (not physical) for pathname using bash $PWD'''if pathname[0]=="/":
        return pathname
    return(os.path.join(os.environ["PWD"],pathname))

print(abspath("foo.txt"))
print(abspathenv("foo.txt"))

Solution 2:

A solution is :

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

defabspath(pathname):
    """ Returns absolute path not following symbolic links. """if pathname[0]=="/":
        return pathname
    # current working directory
    cwd = Popen("pwd", stdout=PIPE, shell=True).communicate()[0].strip()
    return os.path.join(cwd, pathname)

print os.path.abspath("toto.txt")  # --> "/private/tmp/toto.txt"print abspath("toto.txt")          # --> "/tmp/toto.txt"