Get the path of the Root Project directory using Python

# Table of Contents

1. Get the path of the Root Project directory using Python
2. Getting a path to a file located in the project's root directory
3. Importing the ROOT_DIR variable in another file
4. Get the path of the Root Project directory using pathlib.Path
5. Dynamically getting the root project folder from any directory
6. Using the os.curdir constant to get the root project directory

# Get the path of the Root Project directory using Python

To get the path of the root project directory:

1. Use the os.path.abspath() method to get a normalized absolute path to the current file.
2. Use the os.path.dirname() method to get the directory name of the path.

For example, suppose we have the following project structure.

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my-project/
  └── main.py
  └── another.py
  └── example.txt

You can add the following code to main.py to get the path to the root project directory.

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import os

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/main.py
print(__file__)

ROOT_DIR = os.path.dirname(
    os.path.abspath(__file__)
)

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(ROOT_DIR)

The __file__ variable is set to the module's path.

We used the os.path.abspath() to get a normalized absolute version of the path.

The last step is to pass the absolute path to the os.path.dirname() method.

The method returns the directory name of the supplied path.

Since our main.py file is located in the root directory of the project, the ROOT_DIR variable stores the path to the project's root directory.

If your file is located one directory deep, you can call os.path.dirname() two times.

For example, suppose you have the following folder structure.

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my-project/
  src/
    └── constants.py

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import os

ROOT_DIR = os.path.dirname(
    os.path.dirname(
        os.path.abspath(__file__)
    )
)

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(ROOT_DIR)

Notice that we called the os.path.dirname() method twice to get the root project directory, because the constants file is located in a nested directory.

# Getting a path to a file located in the project's root directory

The same approach can be used to get the path to a file that's located in the project's root directory.

Suppose we have the following folder structure and we want to get the path to the example.txt file.

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my-project/
  └── main.py
  └── another.py
  └── example.txt

You have to pass the ROOT_DIR variable and the example.txt string to the os.path.join() method to combine the two paths.

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import os

ROOT_DIR = os.path.dirname(
    os.path.abspath(__file__)
)

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(ROOT_DIR)

PATH_TO_FILE_IN_ROOT_DIR = os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, 'example.txt')

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/example.txt
print(PATH_TO_FILE_IN_ROOT_DIR)

The os.path.join() method takes a path and one or more path segments and joins them intelligently.

The method returns the concatenation of the supplied path and path segments.

# Importing the ROOT_DIR variable in another file

You can store your ROOT_DIR variable in a file from which you import your constants and import it into other files.

Suppose we have the following folder structure.

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my-project/
  └── main.py
  └── another.py
  └── example.txt

This is the code for the main.py file where the ROOT_DIR variable is defined.

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import os

ROOT_DIR = os.path.dirname(
    os.path.abspath(__file__)
)

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(ROOT_DIR)

PATH_TO_FILE_IN_ROOT_DIR = os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, 'example.txt')

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/example.txt
print(PATH_TO_FILE_IN_ROOT_DIR)

Here is how you can import the ROOT_DIR and PATH_TO_FILE_IN_ROOT_DIR variables into a different file.

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from main import ROOT_DIR, PATH_TO_FILE_IN_ROOT_DIR

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(ROOT_DIR)

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/example.txt
print(PATH_TO_FILE_IN_ROOT_DIR)

The another.py module is located in the same directory as the main.py file that defines the ROOT_DIR variable.

# Get the path of the Root Project directory using pathlib.Path

You can also use the Path class from the pathlib module to get the path to the root project directory.

Suppose we have the following folder structure.

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my-project/
  └── main.py
  └── src/
    └── constants.py

Here is the code for constants.py.

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from pathlib import Path


def get_project_root_dir():
    return Path(__file__).absolute().parent.parent

The module uses the pathlib.Path() class to get the absolute path to the current module and uses the parent attribute to get the logical parent of the path.

Now you can import and use the get_project_root_dir function into your main.py file.

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from src.constants import get_project_root_dir

ROOT_DIR = get_project_root_dir()

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(ROOT_DIR)

Here is an example that better illustrates how the parent attribute works.

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from pathlib import Path

abs_path = Path(__file__).absolute()

# /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python/main.py
print(abs_path)

print(abs_path.parent)  # 👉️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(abs_path.parent.parent)  # 👉️ /home/borislav/Desktop
print(abs_path.parent.parent.parent)  # 👉️ /home/borislav

You can access the parent attribute multiple times to get the logical parent of each path.

Accessing the attribute once removes the filename.

The second time you access the attribute, the folder that contains the file is removed and so on.

# Dynamically getting the root project folder from any directory

This approach can be made more flexible by using a generator expression that looks for the root directory by name.

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from pathlib import Path

current_dir = Path(__file__)

PROJECT_NAME = 'bobbyhadz_python'

ROOT_DIR = next(
    p for p in current_dir.parents if p.parts[-1] == PROJECT_NAME
)

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(ROOT_DIR)

Notice that you have to specify the name of your project.

In my case, the project is named bobbyhadz-python.

The generator expression iterates over the parent directories and checks if the last part of each parent directory is equal to the project name.

If the condition is met, then we are in the root directory of the project.

# Using the os.curdir constant to get the root project directory

If you run your Python script from the root project folder, you can also:

1. Use the os.curdir attribute to get a string that is used to refer to the current directory.
2. Pass the string to the os.path.abspath() method.

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import os

ROOT_DIR = os.path.abspath(os.curdir)

# 👇️ /home/borislav/Desktop/bobbyhadz_python
print(ROOT_DIR)

The code sample assumes that your main.py module is placed in the root directory of your project and you run the file from the same directory.

I've also written an article on how to get the last part of a Path in Python.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

• Taking a file path from user input in Python
• Message: 'chromedriver' executable needs to be in PATH
• How to get the File path of a Class in Python