Python - Get path of root project structure

Question

I've got a python project with a configuration file in the project root. The configuration file needs to be accessed in a few different files throughout the project.

So it looks something like: <ROOT>/configuration.conf <ROOT>/A/a.py, <ROOT>/A/B/b.py (when b,a.py access the configuration file).

What's the best / easiest way to get the path to the project root and the configuration file without depending on which file inside the project I'm in? i.e without using ../../? It's okay to assume that we know the project root's name.

Answer 1

You can do this how Django does it: define a variable to the Project Root from a file that is in the top-level of the project. For example, if this is what your project structure looks like:

project/
    configuration.conf
    definitions.py
    main.py
    utils.py

In definitions.py you can define (this requires import os):

ROOT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) # This is your Project Root

Thus, with the Project Root known, you can create a variable that points to the location of the configuration (this can be defined anywhere, but a logical place would be to put it in a location where constants are defined - e.g. definitions.py):

CONFIG_PATH = os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, 'configuration.conf')  # requires `import os`

Then, you can easily access the constant (in any of the other files) with the import statement (e.g. in utils.py): from definitions import CONFIG_PATH.