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djangodjango-settings

Get absolute path of django app


I am writing a unit test that needs to access an image file that I put in "fixtures" directory right under my django app directory. I want to open up this image file in my test using relative path, which would require me to get the absolute path of the django app. Is there a way to get the absolute path of the django app?


Solution

  • Python modules (including Django apps) have a __file__ attribute that tells you the location of their __init__.py file on the filesystem, so

    import appname
    pth = os.path.dirname(appname.__file__)
    

    should do what you want.

    In usual circumstances, os.path.absname(appname.__path__[0]), but it's possible for apps to change that if they want to import files in a weird way.

    (I do always do PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) in my settings.py, though -- makes it easy for the various settings that need to be absolute paths.)