How to move to one folder back in python

Question

Actually need to go some path and execute some command and below is the code

code:

import os
present_working_directory = '/home/Desktop/folder' 

presently i am in folder

if some_condition == true :
    change_path = "nodes/hellofolder"
    os.chdir(change_path)
    print os.getcwd()
if another_condition  == true:
    change_another_path = "nodes" 
    os.chdir(change_another_path) 
    print os.getcwd()

**Result**:
'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes/hellofolder'
python: [Errno 1] No such file or directory

Actually whats happening here is when i first used os.chdir() the directory has changed to

'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes/hellofolder',

but for the second one i need to run a file by moving to one folder back that is

'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes'

So can anyone let me how to move one folder back in python

Centre

Avoid os.chdir if you can. The subprocess module's functions take the working directory as an argument. (Also, true should be True and == True is never necessary.) – Exogenous

@Kour ipm, as larsmans said, do what you need to do using subprocess, it has the keyword cwd. So call what you need using: subprocess.call("yourCommand", shell=True, cwd="path/to/directory") – Limber

Answer 1

Just like you would in the shell.

os.chdir("../nodes")

Ketty

Answer 2

Here is a very platform independent way to do it.

In [1]: os.getcwd()
Out[1]: '/Users/user/Dropbox/temp'

In [2]: os.path.normpath(os.getcwd() + os.sep + os.pardir)
Out[2]: '/Users/user/Dropbox/'

Then you have the path, and you can chdir or whatever with it.

Tire

what about ''/Users/user/ how can i get it? – Theravada

thank you for adding this.it should be the actual answer – Gallice

Answer 3

Just call

os.chdir('..')

the same as in any other language :)

Salomie

Tried using this and it does not work. Once I try changing using this my path becomes None – Centimeter

Answer 4

Exact answer for your question is os.chdir('../')

Use case:

Folder1:
    sub-folder1:(you want to navigate here)
Folder2:
    sub-folde2:(you are here)

To navigate to sub-folder1 from sub-folder2, you need to write like this "../Folder1/sub-folder1/"

then, put it in os.chdir("../Folder1/sub-folder1/").

Juggins

Answer 5

think about using absolute paths

import os
pwd = '/home/Desktop/folder'

if some_condition == true :
    path = os.path.join(pwd, "nodes/hellofolder")
    os.chdir(path)
    print os.getcwd()
if another_condition  == true:
    path = os.path.join(pwd, "nodes")
    os.chdir(path) 
    print os.getcwd()

Kamat

Answer 6

My problem was fixed with this command first import os and after add os.path.normpath(os.path.abspath(__file__) + os.sep + os.pardir)

Burleigh

Answer 7

The answers mentioned above are correct. The following is more of something that usually happens when your Python script is in a nested directory. You want to go one level up from the current working directory to maybe, let's say, load a file.

The idea is to simply reformat the path string and prefix it with a '../'. So an example would be.

'../current_directory/' + filename

This format is similar to when used in a terminal. Whenever in doubt fire up a terminal and experiment with some commands. The format is reflected in the programming language.

Clockwork

Answer 8

Define this function in your script and call it whenever you want to go back just by one folder:

import os

def dirback():
    m = os.getcwd()
    n = m.rfind("\\")
    d = m[0: n+1]
    os.chdir(d)
    return None

Forsythia

Answer 9

import os
pathX = r'C:/Hello/HelloWorld'
print(os.path.dirname(pathX))

Vallation

Please explain the effect of what you propose and how it helps to solve the problem. Try for How to Answer and consider taking the tour. – Culmination