How does F# Interactive #I command know about project path?

Question

Here is the scenario:

1. Open Visual Studio. This was done in VS2010 Pro.
2. Open F# Interactive within Visual Studio
3. Open project with fsx file
   

Answer 1

In F# Interactive, the default directory to search is the source directory. You can query it easily using __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__.

This behaviour is very convenient to allow you to use relative paths. You often have fsx files in the same folder with fs files.

#load "Ast.fs"
#load "Core.fs"

When your refer to a relative path, F# Interactive will always use the implicit source directory as the starting point.

#I ".."
#r ... // Reference some dll in parent folder of source directory
#I ".."
#r ... // Reference some dll in that folder again

If you want to remember the old directory for next reference, you should use #cd instead:

#cd "bin"
#r ... // Reference some dll in bin
#cd "Debug"
#r ... // Reference some dll in bin/Debug