File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/IPython/config/__init__.py", line 16, in <module> from .application import * File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/IPython/config/application.py", line 31, in <module> from IPython.config.configurable import SingletonConfigurable File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/IPython/config/configurable.py", line 33, in <module> from IPython.utils.text import indent, wrap_paragraphs File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/IPython/utils/text.py", line 28, in <module> from IPython.external.path import path File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/IPython/external/path/__init__.py", line 2, in <module> from path import * File "/home/jhammel/python/path.py", line 25 print root(path) ^

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/python/_path.py	Wed Jul 09 16:26:49 2014 -0700
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+"""
+(filesystem) path utilities
+
+from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12041525/a-system-independent-way-using-python-to-get-the-root-directory-drive-on-which-p
+"""
+
+import os
+
+def is_root(path):
+    """is `path` the filesystem root"""
+    return not os.path.split(path)[1]
+
+def root(path):
+    """return filesystem root of path"""
+    path = os.path.abspath(path)
+    while not is_root(path):
+        path, tail = os.path.split(path)
+    return path
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    import sys
+    for path in sys.argv[1:]:
+        print root(path)