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<H2><A NAME="SECTION008160000000000000000"></A>
<BR>
6.1.6 Miscellanenous System Data 
</H2>

<P>
The follow data values are used to support path manipulation
operations.  These are defined for all platforms.

<P>
Higher-level operations on pathnames are defined in the
<tt class=module><a href="module-os.path.html">os.path</a></tt> module.

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-976"><tt>curdir</tt></a></b>
<dd>
The constant string used by the OS to refer to the current directory,
e.g. <tt>'.'</tt> for POSIX or <tt>':'</tt> for the Macintosh.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-977"><tt>pardir</tt></a></b>
<dd>
The constant string used by the OS to refer to the parent directory,
e.g. <tt>'..'</tt> for POSIX or <tt>'::'</tt> for the Macintosh.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-978"><tt>sep</tt></a></b>
<dd>
The character used by the OS to separate pathname components,
e.g. "<tt class=character>/</tt>" for POSIX or "<tt class=character>:</tt>" for the Macintosh.
Note that knowing this is not sufficient to be able to parse or
concatenate pathnames -- use <tt class=function>os.path.split()</tt> and
<tt class=function>os.path.join()</tt> -- but it is occasionally useful.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-979"><tt>altsep</tt></a></b>
<dd>
An alternative character used by the OS to separate pathname components,
or <tt>None</tt> if only one separator character exists.  This is set to
"<tt class=character>/</tt>" on DOS and Windows systems where <tt>sep</tt> is a backslash.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-980"><tt>pathsep</tt></a></b>
<dd>
The character conventionally used by the OS to separate search patch
components (as in <span class=envvar><a name="l2h-983">$PATH</a></span>), e.g. "<tt class=character>:</tt>" for POSIX or
"<tt class=character>;</tt>" for DOS and Windows.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-981"><tt>defpath</tt></a></b>
<dd>
The default search path used by <tt class=function>exec*p*()</tt> if the environment
doesn't have a <tt>'PATH'</tt> key.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-982"><tt>linesep</tt></a></b>
<dd>
The string used to separate (or, rather, terminate) lines on the
current platform.  This may be a single character,
e.g. <tt>'&#92;n'</tt> for POSIX or <tt>'&#92;r'</tt> for MacOS, or multiple
characters, e.g. <tt>'&#92;r&#92;n'</tt> for MS-DOS and MS Windows.
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