Using chdir to move up a directory in Python

Question

Want to move up one directory from a given directory. I achieve this by doing:

import os
os.chdir(given_dir)
os.chdir('..')

But, I was wondering if there was a better more explicit way using (ideally) one statement or if there exists a built-in feature that I may not be aware of.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2860153/how-do-i-get-the-parent-directory-in-python — Paulo Almeida, Apr 06 '16 at 12:31
&Paulo Almeida: I have seen that post, thanks. But it does not apply exactly to what I am asking which is that from a given dir to move up. Could you explain the downvote please? — Yannis, Apr 06 '16 at 12:36
@Yannis I wasn't the one who downvoted (easy to verify, since I have 0 downvotes). That said, the question I linked to gives you the answer. Once you have the parent, you just have to `chdir` to it. According to the answers I linked to, `os.path.dirname` can give you the wrong result depending on trailing slash. — Paulo Almeida, Apr 06 '16 at 12:52
What do you mean when you say its not pythonic??? It is standard parent directory relative path. Can you explain how it has anything to do with python idioms? — C Panda, Apr 06 '16 at 12:52
@PauloAlmeida From a post similar to the one you linked I 've seen how to do this using 2 statements. So, thank you for that. I was wondering whether or not there was a more explicit way using perhaps a method I was not aware of. — Yannis, Apr 06 '16 at 12:56
@CPanda By 'not Pythonic' I mean to write something using 2 statements when you could (perhaps) do it using 1 more explicitly. Thanks for the downvote. — Yannis, Apr 06 '16 at 12:58
@Yannis With [unipath](https://github.com/mikeorr/Unipath) you could do it like `os.chdir(path.parent)`. — Paulo Almeida, Apr 06 '16 at 13:06
@Yannis Have you typed `os.pardir` in REPL yet? What does it show? It shows `..`. Did you see the output of `os.path.join(given_dir, os.pardir)`. You can see `..` in that. Using absolute paths as opposed to relative ones are more of a program requirement than an idiom of any particular language. — C Panda, Apr 06 '16 at 13:08
@CPanda Appreciate the detailed explanation, thanks. A complete answer answer should ideally include this info as well regarding for the 'best approach' concerns. — Yannis, Apr 06 '16 at 13:46

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 06 '16 at 13:11

2

How about

import os, os.path
print os.chdir(os.path.join(given_dir, os.pardir))

OR

os.chdir(os.path.dirname(given_dir))

(as Selcuk suggested)

edited Apr 06 '16 at 13:11

Yannis

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answered Apr 06 '16 at 12:34

Martin Swanepoel

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It works great, thanks. The 'os,pardir' is very nice suggestion, did not know about. And, just for having a more complete answer, I edited yours to include Selcuk's comment which also works; although not sure which is one is better.. – Yannis Apr 06 '16 at 12:50

Using chdir to move up a directory in Python

1 Answers1