From: "Mehr, Assaph (Assaph)" <assaph@...>
Date: 2004-04-30T08:59:37+09:00
Subject: Re: File.expand_path(__FILE__)


> I'm having a problem with File.expand_path(__FILE__) after a chdir. 
> Looks like a bug in Ruby to me. If someone can tell me what I'm doing 
> wrong, I'd be grateful.

> Here's the reduction:

> [ryan@kursk 15:26:38 ~]$ cat tmp/demo-problem.rb
> puts "starting working directory: " + Dir.getwd
> puts "expand_path: " + File.expand_path(__FILE__)
> puts "about to change to dirname of __FILE__: " + __FILE__
> Dir.chdir(File.dirname(__FILE__))
> puts "new working directory: " + Dir.getwd
> puts "expand_path: " + File.expand_path(__FILE__)

IIUC, It's actually behaving properly: Most dir references are relative
by default in ruby. Thus, __FILE__ in your example is just
'temp/demo.rb' and not the absolute path.

Add a call to Dir.getwd at the end and you'll see you are in the right
path. I usually define at the start of my apps a constant:
$APP_PATH = File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__))

Usually closely followed by:
$LOAD_PATH << $APP_PATH