How to read a file in other directory in python

In case you're not in the specified directory (i.e. direct), you should use (in linux):

x_file = open('path/to/direct/filename.txt')

Note the quotes and the relative path to the directory.

This may be your problem, but you also don't have permission to access that file. Maybe you're trying to open it as another user.

Looks like you are trying to open a directory for reading as if it's a regular file. Many OSs won't let you do that. You don't need to anyway, because what you want (judging from your description) is

x_file = open(os.path.join(direct, "5_1.txt"), "r")  

or simply

x_file = open(direct+"/5_1.txt", "r")