How to test if current directory is $HOME?

Question

I am converting a shell script into a Python script and having some trouble with testing an IF condition. In this environment we are running Python 3.9.2.

I originally set 2 variables (homeDir and curDir), create an if-else condition to test if the variables are equal.

Running the script I do a cd to the $HOME directory and run the Python script.

It always prints "False", even when the console output shows the variables are equal.

I am expecting the script to return "Take Action ABC" when running the script in the $HOME directory.

Screen capture showing the output:

Sample of the code:

import os
from pathlib import Path

homeDir = Path.home()
curDir = os.getcwd()

print('DEBUG homeDir:', homeDir)
print('DEBUG curDir:', curDir)

if curDir == homeDir:
    print('True')
else:
    print('False')

Answer 1

You have objects of different types; homeDir is a Path object, while curDir is a str . For that reason they won't compare equal, even if semantically they are the same path. Use one module or the other instead of mixing pathlib and os . One solution would be to replace

os.getcwd()

with

Path.cwd()

The latter is thepathlib equivalent to os.getcwd() .

Example from a Python 3.9 REPL invoked from where my current directory is my user home directory:

>>> os.getcwd() == Path.home()
False
>>> Path.cwd() == Path.home()
True