Handling the Current Working Directory
Consider Current Working Directory(CWD) as a folder, where Python is operating. Whenever the files are called only by their name, Python assumes that it starts in the CWD which means that name-only reference will be successful only if the file is in the Python’s CWD.
Note: The folder where the Python script is running is known as the Current Directory. This is not the path where the Python script is located.
Getting the Current working directory
To get the location of the current working directory os.getcwd() is used.
Example: This code uses the ‘os' module to get and print the current working directory (CWD) of the Python script. It retrieves the CWD using the ‘os.getcwd()' and then prints it to the console.
import os
cwd = os.getcwd()
print("Current working directory:", cwd)
Output:
Current working directory: /home/nikhil/Desktop/gfg
Changing the Current working directory
To change the current working directory(CWD) os.chdir() method is used. This method changes the CWD to a specified path. It only takes a single argument as a new directory path.
Note: The current working directory is the folder in which the Python script is operating.
Example: The code checks and displays the current working directory (CWD) twice: before and after changing the directory up one level using os.chdir('../'). It provides a simple example of how to work with the current working directory in Python.
import os
def current_path():
print("Current working directory before")
print(os.getcwd())
print()
current_path()
os.chdir('../')
current_path()
Output:
Current working directory before
C:\Users\Nikhil Aggarwal\Desktop\gfg
Current working directory after
C:\Users\Nikhil Aggarwal\Desktop
OS Module in Python with Examples
The OS module in Python provides functions for interacting with the operating system. OS comes under Python’s standard utility modules. This module provides a portable way of using operating system-dependent functionality.
The *os* and *os.path* modules include many functions to interact with the file system.