How do programs know where their files are? And how to implement the same thing in python?-CodePudding

I am working on a python project that depends on some other files. It all works fine while testing. However, I want the program to run on start up. The working directory for programs that run on start up seems to be C:Windows\system32. When installing a program, it usually asks where to install it and no matter where you put it, if it runs on start up, it knows where its files are located. How do they achieve that? Also, how to achieve the same thing in python?

CodePudding user response：

If you plan to consume local files that contain raw data or processed data, defining a default directory or a set of directories can simplify your implementation, for example:

Place your data files under a specific set of folders in C:\ or place your files under the F:\ folder, that can be a part of your on premisses file system

Based on where your Python application is located, you'll need to use relative paths or a library to help you to locate these files.

Here are some examples:

os.path

pathlib

CodePudding user response：

First of all, what do you mean by "their files"? Windows applications can store "their files" in multiple places (including but not limited to %CommonProgramFiles%, %ProgramData% and %AppData%).

That being said, the common location for simple applications and scripts is to use the same directory as the .exe (or script).

In Python there seems to be multiple ways to find this path, this seems to work nicely:

import os
print(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)))