I have a script that searches for a directory containing a specific file, starting from the current directory and going up the tree (think of trying to find out where the .git directory sits). My method looks like this: def getDir(self,cwd): path = os.path.abspath(cwd) if not os.path.isdir(path): raise RuntimeError("getDir should not be run on files") if FILE in os.listdir(path): return path parent = os.path.join(path, os.path.pardir) if os.access(parent, os.R_OK) and os.access(parent, os.X_OK): return self.getDir(parent) else return None Now the problem with this method is that, if it cannot find the directory, it loops (and eventually stack-overflows) because apparently joining / and .. gives you / again. I tried comparing path with parent or their reprs, but that did not work (they were always distinct). My workaround for now is to include a depth counter in the recursive method and stop at some random maximum threshold. My question is thus, is there a reliable cross-platform way to check whether I have reached a root in the file system? Continue reading...
