Loading a configuration file from an operating system independent location in python

Question

under Linux I put my configs in "~ / .programname". Where should I put it in the windows? What would be the recommended way to open a standalone configuration file in python?

Thanks! Nathan

Answer 1

Try:

os.path.expanduser('~/.programname') 

On linux, this will return:

 >>> import os >>> os.path.expanduser('~/.programname') '/home/user/.programname' 

In windows, this will return:

 >>> import os >>> os.path.expanduser('~/.programname') 'C:\\Documents and Settings\\user/.programname' 

This is a little ugly, so you probably want to do this:

 >>> import os >>> os.path.join(os.path.expanduser('~'), '.programname') 'C:\\Documents and Settings\\user\\.programname' 

EDIT: for what, the following applications on my Windows computer create their own configuration folders in my Documents and Settings\user folder:

• Android
• AgroUML
• Gimp
• Ipython

EDIT 2: Oh, I just noticed that instead of /user/.programname , /home/user/.programname was placed /user/.programname . Fixed.

Answer 2

On Windows, you save it to os.environ['APPDATA'] . However, on Linux it is now recommended that you store configuration files in os.environ['XDG_CONFIG_HOME'] , by default ~/.config . So, for example, using the JAB example:

 if 'APPDATA' in os.environ: confighome = os.environ['APPDATA'] elif 'XDG_CONFIG_HOME' in os.environ: confighome = os.environ['XDG_CONFIG_HOME'] else: confighome = os.path.join(os.environ['HOME'], '.config') configpath = os.path.join(confighome, 'programname') 

The XDG standard base directory was created so that the configuration could be saved in one place without cluttering your home directory with dotfiles. Most new Linux applications support it.

Answer 3

Typically, the configuration and data files for programs on Windows are in the% APPDATA% directory (or assumed), usually in a subdirectory with the name of the program. "% APPDATA%", of course, is just an environment variable that maps to the current user data folder of the application. I do not know if it exists on Linux (although I assume that it is not), so do it on different platforms (Windows / Linux / MacOS) ...

 import os if 'APPDATA' in os.environ.keys(): envar = 'APPDATA' else: envar = 'HOME' configpath = os.path.join(os.environ[envar], '.programname')