Why subprocess.call('ls ~/mnt', shell=True) works but os.path.exists('~/mnt') doesn't?

Question

I am trying to access a path starting with ~/ in linux using python and its not working. Tried getting absolute path but that also is failing for ~/paths. What is the right way to handle ~/path in python?

mkdir ~/mnt
touch ~/mnt/test.txt
ls ~/mnt

Results:

test.txt

python3

import os
import subprocess
print(os.path.exists('~/mnt'))
print(os.path.exists(os.path.abspath('~/mnt')))
subprocess.call('ls ~/mnt3', shell=True)

Results in,

False
False
test.txt
0

I think you're looking for [`os.path.expanduser`](https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.path.html#os.path.expanduser) — rv.kvetch, Aug 16 '22 at 16:33
you don't need it on the last line though (where you call `ls`) — rv.kvetch, Aug 16 '22 at 16:35

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 16 '22 at 16:37

An easier way in Python 3, is with the builtin pathlib module:

from pathlib import Path

# don't forget the `expanduser()` here
p = Path('~/.mnt').expanduser()

print(p.exists())  # true
print(p.absolute().exists())  # true

p2 = p / 'other_file'
print(str(p2))  # /Users/<user>/.mnt/other_file

Why subprocess.call('ls ~/mnt', shell=True) works but os.path.exists('~/mnt') doesn't?

python3

1 Answers1