How to make path directory generic and dynamic for any user?

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I have trace32 installed at C drive and have mentioned that directory in my code. Suppose if some other user run this code in their system, the code does not work because the user has installed application in different location. How can I make this directory generic and dynamic and make it work for all users?

directory python
1 Answers

You have multiple possibilities. Bevor explaining them some generic tips:

  • Make the TRACE32 system path configurable, not a path inside the installation. In your case this would be r"C:\T32". This path is called t32sys or T32SYS.

  • Make sure you use os.path.join to concatenate your strings, so it works on the users operating system: os.path.join(r"C:\T32", "bin/windows64")

  1. Command line arguments using argparse. This is the simplest solution which requires the user to start the Python script like this: python script.py --t32sys="C:\t32".
import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("--t32sys", help="TRACE32 system directory.")
args = parser.parse_args()
t32sys = args["t32sys"]
  1. Instead of command line parameters you could also use a configuration file. For this you can use the built-in configparser module. This has the advantage that the user doesn't need to specify the directory as a command line argument, but the disadvantage that the user needs to be aware of the configuration file.

Configuration file (example.ini):

[DEFAULT]
t32sys = C:\T32

import configparser

parser = configparser.ConfigParser()
parser.read("example.ini")
args = parser["DEFAULT"]
t32sys = args["t32sys"]
  1. Environment variables using os.environ. T32SYS is a environment variable often used for this, but it's not ensured to be set. So you have to tell users that they have to set the variable before using your tool. This approach has the advantage to work in the background, but also in my opinion a little bit obfuscating. I'd only use this in combination with argparse or configparse to override.
import os

t32sys = os.environ.get('T32SYS')
  1. You can of course combine multiple ways with fallbacks / overrides.
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