Use this tag for question regarding "data paths" and "file paths" in blender.
A link to the blender python API about data paths.
Regarding File Paths and Blender
...
Regarding File Paths and Python
Specifically the topic of how to get a valid file path using Python is worth stating explicitly. Python's os module is capable of joining file paths and extracting directory names or file names:
filename = 'some_file_name.extention'
# known as "POSIX" form (on linux or osx):
directory = '/home/username/Desktop'
# python on windows handles paths in two ways.
directory = r'c:\some\directory' # the r is important
directory = 'c:/some/directory' # (alternative)
# this will automatically join directories and a filename to
# produce a full file path
fullpath = os.path.join(directory, filename)
The current file's location is obtained using __file__, and os.path.dirname will return the full directory minus the filename
import os
current_file_path = __file__
current_file_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
to access a file in the same directory as this python file you do
other_file_path = os.path.join(current_file_dir, "other_file.ext")
with open(other_file_path) as f:
...
if there's a directory on the same path as the main python file you can get that by doing
other_file_path = os.path.join(current_file_dir, "directory", "other_file.ext")
with open(other_file_path) as f:
...
