python change starting up/default directory

Question

I am new to python. Every time I start the shell, it always gives me directory as:

".../file name/Python/"

But I want to change it to:

".../file name/python program/"

How do I do it without changing the import modulate stuff? I am afraid to make it wrong so that I can't import anymore, but it is so annoy to put:

import os
os.chdir(".../file name/python program/")

every time after I open the shell. Thanks for help!

Solution 1

Checkout: http://docs.python.org/using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHONSTARTUP

This is an environment variable that can be set to a file. This is executed prior to start up of shell and only applies if you are using interactive shell.

You can use this to specify a path as current directory at start of your shell.

import os
os.chdir('/pathto')
del os 

Write to a file and point to it with env variable.

If this is just specific to a file that you are running, then you should be changing the directory inside the script

os.chdir('/pathto')

Solution 2

If you are trying to set up python so that it will automatically search in a specific directory on your computer when you import modules, open to your /python27/Lib/site.py file and add your paths to the PREFIXES list near the top of the file