Python's os.listdir behaviour on Windows

This is not specific to Python, it's a Windows question at heart.

In Windows C: and C:\ (or, alternatively C:/) have quite different meanings:

• C: refers to the current directory on the drive C:
• C:\ (and C:/) refers to the root directory of the drive C:

While UNIX-like operating systems simply have a "current directory", Windows has two separate notions:

• the current drive and
• the current directory per drive

So the current drive could be D:, the current directory on C: could be \Windows (effectively C:\Windows) and the current directory on D: could be \Data (effectively D:\Data). In this scenario resolution would work like this:

• . would refer to D:\Data
• \ would refer to D:\
• C: would refer to C:\Windows
• C:\Foo would refer to C:\Foo

So if you want to have information about a specific directory, you should always use a full path including both a drive and a directory, such as C:\.

C: uses the current working directory on the C: drive.

C:/ is translated to C:\ and uses the root directory on the C: drive.

Is there a way to get os.listdir('c:') to return the contents of "c:/"?

No.

You can, however, change directories. But that may be confusing to users.