The os.path module how to works?

Question

The os.path is a module in python,but I do not find a file named os.path.py in the installation directory . But other modules, like os , string ,etc.I can find the corresponding implementation file os.py and string.py .

Now,I want to know how the os.path module works?

Answer 1

Depending on what platform you are using, os.path is actually:

• ntpath.py for Windows
• posixpath.py for Linux
• macpath.py for Mac OSX

The os module says this at the top of the file:

r"""OS routines for NT or Posix depending on what system we're on.

This exports:
  - all functions from posix, nt, os2, or ce, e.g. unlink, stat, etc.
  - os.path is one of the modules posixpath, or ntpath
  - os.name is 'posix', 'nt', 'os2', 'ce' or 'riscos'
  - os.curdir is a string representing the current directory ('.' or ':')
  - os.pardir is a string representing the parent directory ('..' or '::')
  - os.sep is the (or a most common) pathname separator ('/' or ':' or '\\')
  - os.extsep is the extension separator ('.' or '/')
  - os.altsep is the alternate pathname separator (None or '/')
  - os.pathsep is the component separator used in $PATH etc
  - os.linesep is the line separator in text files ('\r' or '\n' or '\r\n')
  - os.defpath is the default search path for executables
  - os.devnull is the file path of the null device ('/dev/null', etc.)

Programs that import and use 'os' stand a better chance of being
portable between different platforms.  Of course, they must then
only use functions that are defined by all platforms (e.g., unlink
and opendir), and leave all pathname manipulation to os.path
(e.g., split and join).
"""