Python: absolute path error in mac

Question

I am using python on mac and would like to open a pdf file that is present in different directory than the directory my main python code is running. I tried different options but there is always an error saying file doesn't exist even when the file is present or [Error no. 2] file cannot be opened. Here is the code that I use:

helpFile = os.path.abspath('~/help/help.pdf')
self.help_btn = tk.Button(self.help_frm, text="Help!", width=8, command = lambda: os.system("open "+helpFile))

could some one help please.

That code has a lot going on - TkInter, lambda, os.path.abspath, etc. I would simplify it to code that simply tries to open and read a file. That way, you can ask the question more simply, and also it'll be easy to spot the issue. — rickcnagy
– rickcnagy, Commented May 31, 2015 at 22:38

stonesam92 · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-31 22:58:28Z

1

abspath does not expand ~ into the user's home directory, it just calculates the absolute path of a file based on its path relative to the current working directory.

From the docs, it is equivalent to:

normpath(join(os.getcwd(), path))

So in your code, helpFile is being set to "/path/to/cwd/~/help/help.pdf"

To expand ~, use os.path.expanduser.

edited May 31, 2015 at 22:58

answered May 31, 2015 at 22:41

stonesam92

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