how to get unpredictable directory path with python?

Question

first, I will describe in short the problem I want to solve:

I have a system UNIX based, that running an automatic run that causing images creation.

those images, are saving in a directory that creating during the run and the name of the directory is unpredictable [the name is depends in so many factors and not constant.]

that directory, is created under a constant path, which is:

/usr/local/insight/results/images/toolsDB/lauto_ptest_s + str(datetime.datetime.now()).split()[ 0] + /w1

So, now I got a constant form of path which is a part of my full path. I tried to get the full path in a stupid way:

I wrote a script that open a new terminal by pressing ctrl+alt+sft+w, writing in the terminal the cd command to the constant path, and pressing tab in order to complete the full path [In the constant path there is always one directory that created so pressing tab will always get me the full path].

Theoretically, I have a full path in a terminal, how can I copy this full path and make the function return it?

this is my code:

import pyautogui
import datetime


def open_images_directory():

    pyautogui.hotkey('ctrl', 'alt', 'shift', 'w')
    pyautogui.write(
        'cd' + ' /usr/local/insight/results/images/toolsDB/lauto_ptest_s' + str(datetime.datetime.now()).split()[
            0] + '/w1/')
    pyautogui.sleep(0.5)
    pyautogui.hotkey('tab') # now I have a full path in terminal which I want to return by func


open_images_directory()

Answer 1

Not sure how you use pyautogui for that, but the proper solution would be search the directory structure with some glob patterns

Example:

from pathlib import Path

const_path = Path("const_path")
for path in [p for p in const_path.rglob("*")]:
    if path.is_dir():
        print(f"found directory {path}")
    else:
        print(f"found your image {path}")

const_path.rglob("*") searches every path recursively, (so it will contain every subdirectory), the last one will be your path you are searching for.