How to retrieve a module's path?

Question

I want to detect whether module has changed. Now, using inotify is simple, you just need to know the directory you want to get notifications from.

How do I retrieve

Answer 1

Command Line Utility

You can tweak it to a command line utility,

python-which <package name>

---

Create /usr/local/bin/python-which

#!/usr/bin/env python

import importlib
import os
import sys

args = sys.argv[1:]
if len(args) > 0:
    module = importlib.import_module(args[0])
    print os.path.dirname(module.__file__)

Make it executable

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/python-which

Answer 2

If you wish to do this dynamically in a "program" try this code:
My point is, you may not know the exact name of the module to "hardcode" it. It may be selected from a list or may not be currently running to use __file__.

(I know, it will not work in Python 3)

global modpath
modname = 'os' #This can be any module name on the fly
#Create a file called "modname.py"
f=open("modname.py","w")
f.write("import "+modname+"\n")
f.write("modpath = "+modname+"\n")
f.close()
#Call the file with execfile()
execfile('modname.py')
print modpath
<module 'os' from 'C:\Python27\lib\os.pyc'>

I tried to get rid of the "global" issue but found cases where it did not work I think "execfile()" can be emulated in Python 3 Since this is in a program, it can easily be put in a method or module for reuse.