How can I access the current executing module or class name in Python?

Question

I would like to be able to dynamically retrieve the current executing module or class name from within an imported module. Here is some code:

foo.py:

Answer 1

Using __file__ alone gives you a relative path for the main module and an absolute path for imported modules. Being aware this we can get the module file constantly either way with a little help from our os.path tools.

For filename only use __file__.split(os.path.sep)[-1].

For complete path use os.path.abspath(__file__).

Demo:

/tmp $ cat f.py
from pprint import pprint
import os
import sys

pprint({
    'sys.modules[__name__]': sys.modules[__name__],
    '__file__': __file__,
    '__file__.split(os.path.sep)[-1]': __file__.split(os.path.sep)[-1],
    'os.path.abspath(__file__)': os.path.abspath(__file__),
})

/tmp $ cat i.py
import f

Results:

## on *Nix ##

/tmp $ python3 f.py
{'sys.modules[__name__]': ,
 '__file__': 'f.py',
 '__file__.split(os.path.sep)[-1]': 'f.py',
 'os.path.abspath(__file__)': '/tmp/f.py'}

/tmp $ python3 i.py
{'sys.modules[__name__]': ,
 '__file__': '/tmp/f.pyc',
 '__file__.split(os.path.sep)[-1]': 'f.pyc',
 'os.path.abspath(__file__)': '/tmp/f.pyc'}

## on Windows ##

PS C:\tmp> python3.exe f.py
{'sys.modules[__name__]': ,
 '__file__': 'f.py',
 '__file__.split(os.path.sep)[-1]': 'f.py',
 'os.path.abspath(__file__)': 'C:\\tools\\cygwin\\tmp\\f.py'}

PS C:\tmp> python3.exe i.py
{'sys.modules[__name__]': ,
 '__file__': 'C:\\tools\\cygwin\\tmp\\f.py',
 '__file__.split(os.path.sep)[-1]': 'f.py',
 'os.path.abspath(__file__)': 'C:\\tools\\cygwin\\tmp\\f.py'}

If you want to strip the '.py' off the end, you can do that easily. (But don't forget that you may run a '.pyc' instead.)