How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

**Daniel Nogradi** · May 1 '06, 08:05 PM

Re: How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

> Hi,[color=blue]
>
> I am trying to write a script to backup all my company's server configs
> weekly. The script will run in a cronjob, on whatever I set it.
>
> The issue I am currently having isto "extract" the directory name from
> a given directory string. For example: from the string
> "/home/testuser/projects/" I need to extract the "projects" part. The
> problem is that the directory names that needs to be used will never be
> the same lenght, so as far as my (very limited) knowledge stretches,
> slicing and indicing is out of the question.
>
> Can anybody help me, or give me an idea of what I should look at,
> seeing as I'm seriously stuck. I only started coding at the beginnig of
> the year, and was never interested before that, so my knowlege is
> basically non-existent.[/color]

You can try this:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> '/home/testuser/projects/'.strip( '/' ).split( '/' )[/color][/color][/color]
['home', 'testuser', 'projects']

strip gets rid of the first and last / and split splits the remaining
part and puts the results into a list.

HTH :)

**Merrigan Took** · May 1 '06, 08:05 PM

Re: How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

Daniel Nogradi wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am trying to write a script to backup all my company's server configs
>> weekly. The script will run in a cronjob, on whatever I set it.
>>
>> The issue I am currently having isto "extract" the directory name from
>> a given directory string. For example: from the string
>> "/home/testuser/projects/" I need to extract the "projects" part. The
>> problem is that the directory names that needs to be used will never be
>> the same lenght, so as far as my (very limited) knowledge stretches,
>> slicing and indicing is out of the question.
>>
>> Can anybody help me, or give me an idea of what I should look at,
>> seeing as I'm seriously stuck. I only started coding at the beginnig of
>> the year, and was never interested before that, so my knowlege is
>> basically non-existent.[/color]
>
> You can try this:
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>>>> '/home/testuser/projects/'.strip( '/' ).split( '/' )[/color][/color]
> ['home', 'testuser', 'projects']
>
> strip gets rid of the first and last / and split splits the remaining
> part and puts the results into a list.
>
> HTH :)[/color]
AAAAh, ok, Thank you, I will definitely look into this and play with it!

**Mike Kent** · May 1 '06, 08:05 PM

Re: How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

Python 2.4.2 (#1, Nov 29 2005, 14:04:55)
[GCC 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-5)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright" , "credits" or "license" for more information.[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> import os
>>> d = "/home/testuser/projects"
>>> os.path.basenam e(d)[/color][/color][/color]
'projects'[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> os.path.dirname (d)[/color][/color][/color]
'/home/testuser'[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>>[/color][/color][/color]

**Fredrik Lundh** · May 1 '06, 08:05 PM

Re: How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

"Merrigan" wrote:
[color=blue]
> I am trying to write a script to backup all my company's server configs
> weekly. The script will run in a cronjob, on whatever I set it.
>
> The issue I am currently having isto "extract" the directory name from
> a given directory string. For example: from the string
> "/home/testuser/projects/" I need to extract the "projects" part. The
> problem is that the directory names that needs to be used will never be
> the same lenght, so as far as my (very limited) knowledge stretches,
> slicing and indicing is out of the question.[/color]

os.path.split(p ath) splits a path into directory name and "base name"
parts.
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> import os
>>> os.path.split("/usr/bin/python")[/color][/color][/color]
('/usr/bin', 'python')

if you have a trailing slash, split will return an empty string for the base-
name part
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> os.path.split("/home/testuser/projects/")[/color][/color][/color]
('/home/testuser/projects', '')

but you can work around that by doing an extra split:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> path = "/home/testuser/projects/"
>>> path, name = os.path.split(p ath)
>>> if not name:[/color][/color][/color]
... path, name = os.path.split(p ath)
...[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> path[/color][/color][/color]
'/home/testuser'[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> name[/color][/color][/color]
'projects'

hope this helps!

</F>

**Michael Ekstrand** · May 1 '06, 08:15 PM

Re: How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

On Mon, May 01, 2006 at 12:42:58PM -0700, Merrigan wrote:[color=blue]
> The issue I am currently having isto "extract" the directory name from
> a given directory string. For example: from the string
> "/home/testuser/projects/" I need to extract the "projects" part. The
> problem is that the directory names that needs to be used will never be
> the same lenght, so as far as my (very limited) knowledge stretches,
> slicing and indicing is out of the question.[/color]

Look at the os.path module, especially the basename and dirname
functions. basename will extract the "base name", that is, the last
component of a path.

- Michael

--
mouse, n: a device for pointing at the xterm in which you want to type.
-- Fortune
Visit me on the Web: http://www.elehack.net

**Merrigan** · May 1 '06, 08:25 PM

Re: How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

WOW, Thanks guys. I am really awestruck by the speed you guys relied
with. Thanks a lot for the help. I eventually found a way that did the
job for me.

I will definitely visit this Group more often.

Thanks for all the help! :D

How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

How do I take a directory name from a given dir?

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