Weird Path in Python `pathlib` resolution that doesn't exist in system

Question

I'll jump in medias res to the code:

from pathlib import Path
import os
p = Path(os.getenv("APPDATA")).joinpath(r"Microsoft\WindowsApps")

p.resolve()  # gives 'C:/Users/Alex/AppData/Local/Packages/PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.9_qbz5n2kfra8p0/LocalCache/Roaming/Microsoft/WindowsApps' 

Why is this happening? The system says that there is no such path p , I check hidden files, not even a symbolic link. Why is it resolved to that path?

Answer 1

Path.resolve() just makes the path an absolute path, if you want to also check if the resolved path is an existing path you need to set Path.resolve(strict=True) or a call .exists() on the resolved path.

https://docs.python.org/3/library/pathlib.html#pathlib.Path.resolve

E:

Tested this on my machine in blocks and seems to working as expected:

from pathlib import Path
import os

p = Path(os.getenv("APPDATA"))
print(p)
p = p.joinpath(r"Microsoft\WindowsApps")
print(p)
p = p.resolve()
print(p)
p = p.joinpath("..")
print(p)
p = p.resolve()
print(p)

Output:

C:\Users\tzane\AppData\Roaming
C:\Users\tzane\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\WindowsApps
C:\Users\tzane\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\WindowsApps
C:\Users\tzane\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\WindowsApps\..
C:\Users\tzane\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft