pythonoperating-systemenvironment-variables

How to get the PATH environment-variable separator in Python?


When multiple directories need to be concatenated, as in an executable search path, there is an os-dependent separator character. For Windows it's ';', for Linux it's ':'. Is there a way in Python to get which character to split on?

In the discussions to this question How do I find out my python path using python? , it is suggested that os.sep will do it. That answer is wrong, since it is the separator for components of a directory or filename and equates to '\\' or '/'.


Solution

  • os.pathsep

    The character conventionally used by the operating system to separate search path components (as in PATH), such as ':' for POSIX or ';' for Windows. Also available via os.path.