Passing a relative path in a function

Question

Can someone tell me if the following function declaration is the correct way to pass a relative path to a function? The call is only taking one variable. When I include a second variable (absolute path), my function does not work.

 def extract(tar_url, extract_path='.'):

The call that does not work:

 extract(chosen, path)

This works, but does not extract:

 extract(chosen)

Full Code:

 def do_fileExtract(self, line): defaultFolder = "Extracted" if not defaultFolder.endswith(':') and not os.path.exists('c:\\Extracted'): os.mkdir('c:\\Extracted') raw_input("PLACE .tgz FILES in c:\Extracted AT THIS TIME!!! PRESS ENTER WHEN FINISHED!") else: pass def extract(tar_url, extract_path='.'): print tar_url tar = tarfile.open(tar_url, 'r') for item in tar: tar.extract(item, extract_path) if item.name.find(".tgz") != -1 or item.name.find(".tar") != -1: extract(item.name, "./" + item.name[:item.name.rfind('/')]) userpath = "Extracted" directory = os.path.join("c:\\", userpath) os.chdir(directory) path=os.getcwd() #Set log path here dirlist=os.listdir(path) files = [fname for fname in os.listdir(path) if fname.endswith(('.tgz','.tar'))] for item in enumerate(files): print "%d- %s" % item try: idx = int(raw_input("\nEnter the file's number:\n")) except ValueError: print "You fail at typing numbers." try: chosen = files[idx] except IndexError: print "Try a number in range next time." newDir = raw_input('\nEnter a name to create a folder a the c: root directory:\n') selectDir = os.path.join("c:\\", newDir) path=os.path.abspath(selectDir) if not newDir.endswith(':') and not os.path.exists(selectDir): os.mkdir(selectDir) try: extract(chosen, path) print 'Done' except: name = os.path.basename(sys.argv[0]) print chosen

Since the relevant code is missing from the question, I try a guess: extract() is a method on a class, and you forgot the self parameter. — Sven Marnach
– Sven Marnach, Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 17:42
It looks fine. When you say it doesn't work what do you mean? Does it print an error? — Evgeny
– Evgeny, Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 17:42
@Sven Marnach - is that mandatory? @Evgeny - it does not print an error, just where I don't add a second variable to the call, extracts, but it just creates a folder (don't extract) when I add a second variable (path). — suffa
– suffa, Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 17:52
passing self as a parameter is mandatory when defining a method. But unless the indentation of this code is very wrong, it doesn't look to me like extract is a method -- it looks like a function defined inside a method. So you shouldn't have to include self. — senderle
– senderle, Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 18:16

machine yearning · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-20 19:08:06Z

It looks like you missed an escape character in "PLACE .tgz FILES in c:\Extracted AT THIS TIME!!! PRESS ENTER WHEN FINISHED!" I don't think raw_input sees the prompt string as a raw string, just the user input. But this shouldn't affect the functionality of your program.

Are you on Unix or windows? I was under the impression that the on Unix you use / forward slash instead of \\ backslash as a separator.

I tested some code on this file: http://simkin.asu.edu/geowall/mars/merpano0.tar.gz

The following code:

>>> from os import chdir >>> import tarfile >>> chdir(r'C:\Users\Acer\Downloads') >>> tar_url = 'merpano0.tar.gz' >>> print tar_url merpano0.tar.gz >>> tar = tarfile.open(tar_url, 'r') >>> extract_path = 'C:\\Users\\Acer\\Downloads\\test\\' >>> for item in tar: tar.extract(item, extract_path)

executed cleanly with no problems on my end. In the test directory I got a single folder with some files, exactly as in the original tar file. Can you explain what you're doing differently in your code that might be bugging up?

@user: Not sure how this was the correct answer, but if anything I'm happy to have helped you figure it out for yourself.

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