To get the AppData directory, it's best to use the GetFolderPath method:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
(must add using System if not present).
%AppData% is an environment variable, and they are not automatically expanded anywhere in .NET, although you can explicitly use the Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariable method to do so. I would still strongly suggest that you use GetFolderPath however, because as Johannes Rössel points out in the comment, %AppData% may not be set in certain circumstances.
Finally, to create the path as shown in your example:
var fileName = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(
Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), "DateLinks.xml");
The best solution in my opinion is to use the unittest command line interface which will add the directory to the sys.path so you don't have to (done in the TestLoader class).
For example for a directory structure like this:
new_project
├── antigravity.py
└── test_antigravity.py
You can just run:
$ cd new_project
$ python -m unittest test_antigravity
For a directory structure like yours:
new_project
├── antigravity
│ ├── __init__.py # make it a package
│ └── antigravity.py
└── test
├── __init__.py # also make test a package
└── test_antigravity.py
And in the test modules inside the test package, you can import the antigravity package and its modules as usual:
# import the package
import antigravity
# import the antigravity module
from antigravity import antigravity
# or an object inside the antigravity module
from antigravity.antigravity import my_object
Running a single test module:
To run a single test module, in this case test_antigravity.py:
$ cd new_project
$ python -m unittest test.test_antigravity
Just reference the test module the same way you import it.
Running a single test case or test method:
Also you can run a single TestCase or a single test method:
$ python -m unittest test.test_antigravity.GravityTestCase
$ python -m unittest test.test_antigravity.GravityTestCase.test_method
Running all tests:
You can also use test discovery which will discover and run all the tests for you, they must be modules or packages named test*.py (can be changed with the -p, --pattern flag):
$ cd new_project
$ python -m unittest discover
$ # Also works without discover for Python 3
$ # as suggested by @Burrito in the comments
$ python -m unittest
This will run all the test*.py modules inside the test package.
Best Answer
The latter strings shouldn't start with a slash. If they start with a slash, then they're considered an "absolute path" and everything before them is discarded.
Quoting the Python docs for
os.path.join:Note on Windows, the behaviour in relation to drive letters, which seems to have changed compared to earlier Python versions: