How to get the directory of an argparse file in Python?
Question: I use [`argparse`](http://docs.python.org/library/argparse.html) to get a file
from the user:

    
    
    import argparse, os
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('file', type=file)
    args = parser.parse_args()
    

Then I want to know the directory where this file is, something like:

    
    
    print(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(args.inputfile)))
    

But of course, as `args.inputfile` is a `file` object, this does not work. How
to do it?


Answer: You can get the name of the file from the `.name` attribute, and then pass
this to `os.path.abspath`. For example:

    
    
    args = parser.parse_args()
    path = os.path.abspath(args.file.name)
    

