How do I access files in same directory as executable? (Python Catkin)

asked 2016-06-05 13:21:05 -0500

Nightstalker
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I have a python catkin package in which I am trying to run some shell files kept in the same src folder as my main executable python file start.py.
However, unless I do rosrun from the src folder, the python code is unable to find the shell files for execution. I keep getting a File Not Found error on my script.
I tried adding these to the include folder and updated my CMakeLists.txt but that didn't work. How do I access these shell files?

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answered 2016-06-06 11:51:39 -0500

joq
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I agree with @gvdhoorn about avoiding relative path names. The trick is to use rospkg to construct a path relative to your package directory, something like this (untested):

import os, rospkg
rp = rospkg.RosPack()
script_path = os.path.join(rp.get_path("your_package"), "src", "script_name")

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This works! Thanks a lot, didn't know this trick till now.

Nightstalker ( 2016-06-06 13:16:29 -0500 )edit

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Note that this will only work in the source and devel spaces: packages typically don't install(..) the contents of the pkg/src directory, resulting in a non-existent path whenever the snippet @joq posted is run in a node started from an install space.