expand_path(*args) public

Converts a pathname to an absolute pathname. Relative paths are referenced from the current working directory of the process unless dir_string is given, in which case it will be used as the starting point. The given pathname may start with a “~”, which expands to the process owner’s home directory (the environment variable HOME must be set correctly). “~user” expands to the named user’s home directory.

File.expand_path("~oracle/bin")           #=> "/home/oracle/bin"

A simple example of using dir_string is as follows.

File.expand_path("ruby", "/usr/bin")      #=> "/usr/bin/ruby"

A more complex example which also resolves parent directory is as follows. Suppose we are in bin/mygem and want the absolute path of lib/mygem.rb.

File.expand_path("../../lib/mygem.rb", __FILE__)
#=> ".../path/to/project/lib/mygem.rb"

So first it resolves the parent of __FILE__, that is bin/, then go to the parent, the root of the project and appends lib/mygem.rb.

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April 23, 2009
6 thanks

Argument Ordering

Be aware that the order of arguments for this method is the opposite of File.join:

File.expand_path('foo', '/bar')   # => "/bar/foo"
File.join('foo', '/bar')          # => "foo/bar"
April 16, 2010
5 thanks

Require file from the same folder

If you want to require file from the same folder, the simplest way is

require File.expand_path('../file-to-require', __FILE__)

If your file is /lib/book.rb

File.expand_path('../page', '/lib/book.rb') => '/lib/page.rb'
September 25, 2013
0 thanks

Anothery way

This Worked For Me 

require File.expand_path('../app/models/extenstions/active_record_ext', File.dirname(__FILE__))

I did this in application.rb