How to move to one folder back in python

Question:

Actually need to go some path and execute some command and below is the code

code:

import os
present_working_directory = '/home/Desktop/folder' 

presently i am in folder

if some_condition == true :
    change_path = "nodes/hellofolder"
    os.chdir(change_path)
    print os.getcwd()
if another_condition  == true:
    change_another_path = "nodes" 
    os.chdir(change_another_path) 
    print os.getcwd()

**Result**:
'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes/hellofolder'
python: [Errno 1] No such file or directory

Actually whats happening here is when i first used os.chdir() the directory has changed to

'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes/hellofolder',

but for the second one i need to run a file by moving to one folder back that is

'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes'

So can anyone let me how to move one folder back in python

Answers:

Just like you would in the shell.

os.chdir("../nodes")
Answered By: Alex

Just call

os.chdir('..')

the same as in any other language 🙂

Answered By: moopet

think about using absolute paths

import os
pwd = '/home/Desktop/folder'

if some_condition == true :
    path = os.path.join(pwd, "nodes/hellofolder")
    os.chdir(path)
    print os.getcwd()
if another_condition  == true:
    path = os.path.join(pwd, "nodes")
    os.chdir(path) 
    print os.getcwd()
Answered By: Christian Thieme

Here is a very platform independent way to do it.

In [1]: os.getcwd()
Out[1]: '/Users/user/Dropbox/temp'

In [2]: os.path.normpath(os.getcwd() + os.sep + os.pardir)
Out[2]: '/Users/user/Dropbox/'

Then you have the path, and you can chdir or whatever with it.

Answered By: chimpsarehungry

Exact answer for your question is os.chdir('../')

Use case:

Folder1:
    sub-folder1:(you want to navigate here)
Folder2:
    sub-folde2:(you are here)

To navigate to sub-folder1 from sub-folder2, you need to write like this
../Folder1/sub-folder1/

then, put it in os.chdir("../Folder1/sub-folder1/").

Answered By: Bandham Manikanta

My problem was fixed with this command
first import os and after add
os.path.normpath(os.path.abspath(__file__) + os.sep + os.pardir)

Answered By: Omid Ostovari

The answers mentioned above are correct. The following is more a
It usually happens when your Python script is in a nested directory and you want to go one level up from the current working directory to maybe let’s say load a file.

The idea is to simply reformat the path string and prefix it with a ‘../’. So an example would be.

'../current_directory/' + filename

This format is similar to when used in a terminal. Whenever in doubt fire up a terminal and experiment with some commands. The format is reflected in the programming language.

Answered By: simpleParadox

Define this function in your script and call it whenever you want to go back just by one folder:

import os

def dirback():
    m = os.getcwd()
    n = m.rfind("\")
    d = m[0: n+1]
    os.chdir(d)
    return None
Answered By: Amirhoseyn
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