A system independent way using python to get the root directory/drive on which python is installed

Question

For Linux this would give me /, for Windows on the C drive that would give me C:\\\\. Note that python is not necessarily installed on the C drive

Answer 1

Try this:

import os

def root_path():
    return os.path.abspath(os.sep)

On Linux this returns /

On Windows this returns C:\\ or whatever the current drive is

Answer 2

Using pathlib (Python 3.4+):

import sys
from pathlib import Path

path = Path(sys.executable)
root_or_drive = path.root or path.drive

Answer 3

Here's what you need:

import sys, os

def get_sys_exec_root_or_drive():
    path = sys.executable
    while os.path.split(path)[1]:
        path = os.path.split(path)[0]
    return path

Answer 4

You can get the path to the Python executable using sys.executable:

>>> import sys
>>> import os
>>> sys.executable
'/usr/bin/python'

Then, for Windows, the drive letter will be the first part of splitdrive:

>>> os.path.splitdrive(sys.executable)
('', '/usr/bin/python')