This module implements some useful functions on pathnames. The path parameters can be passed as either strings, or bytes. Applications are encouraged to represent file names as (Unicode) character strings.
To join two or more path components together, firstly import os module of python and then use following:
import os
os.path.join('a', 'b', 'c')
The advantage of using os.path is that it allows code to remain compatible over all operating systems, as this uses the separator appropriate for the platform it's running on.
For example, the result of this command on Windows will be:
>>> os.path.join('a', 'b', 'c')
'a\b\c'
In an Unix OS:
>>> os.path.join('a', 'b', 'c')
'a/b/c'
Use os.path.abspath:
>>> os.getcwd()
'/Users/csaftoiu/tmp'
>>> os.path.abspath('foo')
'/Users/csaftoiu/tmp/foo'
>>> os.path.abspath('../foo')
'/Users/csaftoiu/foo'
>>> os.path.abspath('/foo')
'/foo'
To split one component off of the path:
>>> p = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'foo.txt')
>>> p
'/Users/csaftoiu/tmp/foo.txt'
>>> os.path.dirname(p)
'/Users/csaftoiu/tmp'
>>> os.path.basename(p)
'foo.txt'
>>> os.path.split(os.getcwd())
('/Users/csaftoiu/tmp', 'foo.txt')
>>> os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(p))
('foo', '.txt')
os.path.abspath(os.path.join(PATH_TO_GET_THE_PARENT, os.pardir))
to check if the given path exists
path = '/home/john/temp'
os.path.exists(path)
#this returns false if path doesn't exist or if the path is a broken symbolic link
to check if the given path is a directory
dirname = '/home/john/python'
os.path.isdir(dirname)
to check if the given path is a file
filename = dirname + 'main.py'
os.path.isfile(filename)
to check if the given path is symbolic link
symlink = dirname + 'some_sym_link'
os.path.islink(symlink)
to check if the given path is a mount point
mount_path = '/home'
os.path.ismount(mount_path)