__file__ is the path of the Python script. Note that if you make a sybolic link to a Python script and run the symbolic link, then __file__ is the path of the symbolic link. Of course, you can use os.path.realpath to get real path of files.

pathlib.Path.cwd(), os.getcwd() and '.' returns/represents the path where the Python script was invoked, which is often different from __file__.