os.makedirs doesn't understand "~" in my path

Question

I have a little problem with ~ in my paths.

This code example creates some directories called ~/some_dir and do not understand that I wanted to create some_dir in my home directory.

my_dir = "~/some_dir"
if not os.path.exists(my_dir):
    os.makedirs(my_dir)

Note this is on a Linux-based system.

score 370 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '18 at 17:50

370

You need to expand the tilde manually:

my_dir = os.path.expanduser('~/some_dir')

edited May 23 '18 at 17:50

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 13 '10 at 13:55

SilentGhost

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score 88 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 13 '10 at 14:00

88

The conversion of ~/some_dir to $HOME/some_dir is called tilde expansion and is a common user interface feature. The file system does not know anything about it.

In Python, this feature is implemented by os.path.expanduser:

my_dir = os.path.expanduser("~/some_dir")

answered Jan 13 '10 at 14:00

ddaa

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Indeed, and it is perfectly valid to have a file or directory named `~`. So the shell home shortcut is ambiguous and best avoided if you can. – bobince Jan 13 '10 at 14:44
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Note that one CAN access a file/dir named "~" in the current directory even when tilde expansion is occuring, using the "./~" notation. That works because ~ expansion only occurs at the start of a file name. It's also a convenient hack for file names starting with "-" or other characters that are treated specially by command line interfaces. You could tell I have probably done way too much shell script hacking. – ddaa Jan 13 '10 at 21:30
`The file system does not know anything about it.` +1 – Bin Dec 25 '15 at 17:28

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 13 '10 at 13:57

16

That's probably because Python is not Bash and doesn't follow same conventions. You may use this:

homedir = os.path.expanduser('~')

answered Jan 13 '10 at 13:57

gruszczy

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os.makedirs doesn't understand "~" in my path

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