Python script execution directory changes when I execute outside of Console

Question

TLDR: I want to change the working directory of my script to the script file's location(instead of system32) when i run it by double clicking on it.
I have a really annoying problem I couldn't solve. I am building a python script that will take 4 text files as input and create some graphs and an excel sheet using these text files. I am going to pass my script to a friend who will copy this script into different folders and execute the script in those folders by just double-clicking on the script. The problem I am facing is when I execute my code out of cmd everything works fine. But if I double click on it, the directory my code is working changes automatically, and my program can't find the required 4 text files. I am attaching the required parts of my code below and also attaching some screenshots.
ss1
ss2

def fileOpenCheckLoad(fname):
    pl=list()
    try:
        fh=open(fname)
    except:
        print("ERROR:"+ fname +" is missing. Execution will terminate.")
        x=input("Press enter to quit.")
        quit()
    test1=fh.readline()
    test2=fh.readline()
    if test1[6]!=fname[5] and test2!='t x y\n' :
        print("ERROR: Check the contents of:"+ fname)
        x=input("Press enter to quit.")
        quit()
    count=0
    for lines in fh:
        count=count+1
        if count>2 :
            nums=lines.split()
            pl.append((float(nums[2]), float(nums[2])))
    tbr=(pl,count-2)
    return tbr

# main starts here.
cwd = os.getcwd()
print(cwd)
# In this part we open and load files into the memory. If there is an error we terminate.
(pl1, count1)=fileOpenCheckLoad('point1.txt')
(pl2, count2)=fileOpenCheckLoad('point2.txt')
(pl3, count3)=fileOpenCheckLoad('point3.txt')
(pl4, count4)=fileOpenCheckLoad('point4.txt')

Jake Levi · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-22T13:19:30.533

5

Before calling os.getcwd(), insert this line:

os.chdir(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))

Explanation

__file__ is a special variable in Python; as described here, "__file__ is the pathname of the file from which the module was loaded"
os.path.abspath returns the absolute path to the input file or directory (I included this because depending on how you load up a Python file, sometimes __file__ will be stored as a relative path, and absolute paths tend to be safer to work with)
os.path.dirname returns the name of the directory which contains the input file (because chdir will return an error if we give it the name of a file, so we need to give it the name of the directory which contains the file)
os.chdir changes the working directory

edited Sep 22 '20 at 13:19

answered Sep 22 '20 at 13:06

Jake Levi

1,329
11
16

Thanks a lot, it worked. Can you please explain how it works? Specifically "os.path.abspath(__file__)" this part. – M. Kerem Aydın Sep 22 '20 at 13:09
@M.KeremAydın I'm glad it worked :) See my edit for an explanation (and feel free to accept my answer as the correct answer if it answered your original question) – Jake Levi Sep 22 '20 at 13:20
2

Regarding the requirement for `abspath`, running the script with a relative path will result in a relative path in `__file__`. If it's just the script name (e.g. "main.py"), then `dirname` will return an empty string, and `chdir` will fail. Resolving the absolute path of `__file__` avoids this problem. – Eryk Sun Sep 22 '20 at 13:26

Python script execution directory changes when I execute outside of Console

1 Answers1

Explanation