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TL;DR

What are the options on Windows 10 to run from command line a python script specified by a relative path? Can environment variables be changed to do so? How can this be done?

LONG

I am using Windows 10. When I follow this installation guide (written for Linux), everything is fine until I need to perform the following on Windows

# From tensorflow/models/research/
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:`pwd`:`pwd`/slim

On Windows, I added the two paths (the entire, absolute, path) to PYTHONPATH. When I execute the following; I see the extra two paths added.

C:\User\me>    python -c "import sys; print(sys.path)"

However, if I create a simple test.py script

print("Relative path works")

and run it from the command line:

C:\User\me> python test.py

it works if the test.py file is saved in C:\User\me\, but NOT when it is saved in the folders of PYTHONPATH.

This SO Q&A says that

PYTHONPATH is used by the python interpreter. It is not the same as Windows' PATH environment variable. You can't use it as a search path for passing files to the interpreter on the command line.

But I could not find how I can achieve what I need, using relative path of script to run it from command line. Please note that using the absolute path is not an option, because the instalation guide requires 2 folders are added to the PYTHONPATH, in order for the task to work.

It should be possible but I did not find any answer - Python 3 documentation describes Command line option for running script with relative path:

Execute the Python code contained in script, which must be a filesystem path (absolute or relative) referring to either a Python file...

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  • PYTHONPATH has nothing to do with finding a regular script run from the command line. It adds directories to sys.path for use with import statements. It's only relevant to command-line usage with the -m option that runs an imported module as a script or -c option that runs a command-line script. Commented May 13, 2018 at 0:24

2 Answers 2

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These lines from the install guide are intended to be run after a cd .../tensorflow/models/research/ and thus are absolute paths:

# From tensorflow/models/research/
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:`pwd`:`pwd`/slim

You will likely need to do something similar on Windows. The equivalent would likely be to add the absolute paths to the libraries to PYTHONPATH environment variable.

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I should have been clearer - I added absolute paths to the PYTHONPATH environment variable. But as described above, it still not work.
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I haven't tested this but as mentioned in here, this >>> export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:pwd:pwd/slim should be used as

set PYTHONPATH=%PYTHONPATH%;%cd%;%cd%\slim

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3 Comments

That adapts the linked tensorflow setup for Windows. However, the OP's question implies a deep misunderstanding of what PYTHONPATH is for. The given "test.py" script is just a print call that has nothing to do with tensorflow, and the OP seems to mistakenly think that Python will search sys.path for this script.
correct, the test.py has nothing to do with tensor flow. It is only to test if I can run a simple script with relative path. Is there a way to do it? Can some setting of environment variables achieve that?
there are two options: 1) install the directory in a [development mode] (packaging.python.org/tutorials/distributing-packages/…). 2) when executing >>> python scriptName.py... if you supply directory instead of a file, the directory will be added to sys.path and --main--.py (- symbol used instead of _) file is executed as __main__>>> python dirName ...should do the job if you have a script named --main-- .py (- symbol used instead of _) in your directory. Refer [here] (docs.python.org/3/using/cmdline.html)

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