using os.path is quite verbose is there a more concise way to manipulate paths

Question

for example I have a script that needs to put it's parent directory on the python path, currently I'm using the following

sys.path += [os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)))]

this seems a touch ridiculous, surely there is a simpler way?

Answer 1

You could do:

from os.path import dirname,realpath
sys.path.append(dirname(dirname(realpath(__file__))))

But to be honest, I prefer the full explicit version. It's much easier to read as a standalone statement.

Answer 2

you can also do this

>>> from os.path import dirname as dn, realpath as rp

but its still better to explicitly define the name so you won't have variable names collision problems.

Answer 3

Another option is to import path from os. It's not the most consise but I think it's still easy to read. Do you really want us to golf it? :)

from os import path
sys.path += [path.dirname(path.dirname(path.realpath(__file__)))]

Answer 4

If it is a huge problem, you could wrap os.path functionality is a path class. I'm pretty sure there is a Path module floating around on the internet.

Answer 5

I've found Jason Orendorff's path module to be very nice. Unfortunately, it seems that his website is no longer on the internet, but you can still download the module from PyPI.