How to find application path in c++

[peacehunter]

How to find the path of a application in c++???? I used the code below to find the application path,


`#include <dir.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char tuh[_MAX_PATH];
char *abc;
abc=getcwd(tuh,sizeof(tuh));
printf("The current directory is: %s\n", abc);
getch();
} `

But the problem is that, suppose I compile the code with name app_path.exe and put it into "D:\abc\app_path.exe" . And I have another application named "open_app.exe" which contains in the drive "E:\xyz\open_app.exe" and it will open the exe file from "D:\abc\app_path.exe". But the problem is after opening the "app_path.exe" via "open_app.exe" it will show that current directory is "E:\xyz" instead of "D:\abc". But "app_path.exe" is not located in "E:\xyz".
I want to show the path exactly where the app_path.exe located,like "D:\abc\app_path.exe"
How to solve this problem????? plzzzz give me a solution........

[Athar]

You do this with GetModuleFileName. See:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms683197%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

[andywestken]

For a console app, you can also use the first command line argument passed to the alternative form of main() -- this is my preferred technique for such apps.

Depending on how the application is started, the path which turns up in arg[0] can be an absolute path or a relative path (wrt current working directory). So to ensure I always get the absolute path I used _fullpath().

You can use GetFullPathName() rather than _fullpath(). I tend to use the latter as it is provided but the CRT, so I don't have to pull windows.h in for a single call. If you are using other WIN32 functionality, then it doesn't really matter.

(I do the same thing with Linux, but in that case using the realpath() function)

// main
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    char basePath[255] = "";
    _fullpath(basePath, argv[0], sizeof(basePath));

    //TODO strip exe name off to get directory path

    ...

Andy

Note: the above technique will work under normal circumstances (when you are linking to the CRT). It is possible with Windows -- and no doubt Linux -- to build an ultra-light console app which avoids linking to the CRT. In this case the command lines args are likely to be missing. But this is only for specially these built apps.

[chipp]

anyway, why when i tried like this the results is different when i run it on the debug and through command line.

#include <iostream>
#include <conio.h>
using namespace std;

int main (int argc, char * argv[]) {
	cout << "the address is: " << argv [0] << endl;
	getch();
	return 0;
}

in debug:

the address is: c:\documents and settings\blablabla...

meanwhile in cmd:

the address is: c_test.exe

[Athar]

Yeah, argv[0] just contains the first part of the command line that was used to start the program. So it cannot be used to reliably determine the path the executable is in.

[chipp]

i get it! when the debugger run the program, it executing the program by "enter" a command line to the cmd while when i run the program i wrote the program name... of course it has a different value...

[andywestken]

argv[0] just contains the first part of the command line

This is why you need to use _fullpath() or GetFullPath() to convert argv[0] to an absolute path.

When launched by a debugger or through an Explorer file association, the full path will be passed. But it is benign to path an absolute path to _fullpath(), etc.

I assume that what turns up in argv[0] is whatever was given to the CreateProcess() call that kicked the process off.