How can I get the application's path in a .NET console application?

Question

How do I find the application\'s path in a console application?

In Windows Forms, I can use Application.StartupPath to find the current path, but this d

Answer 1

I have used this code and get the solution.

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory

Answer 2

Following line will give you an application path:

var applicationPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName)

Above solution is working properly in the following situations:

• simple app
• in another domain where Assembly.GetEntryAssembly() would return null
• DLL is loaded from Embedded resources as a byte array and loaded to AppDomain as Assembly.Load(byteArrayOfEmbeddedDll)
• with Mono's mkbundle bundles (no other methods work)

Answer 3

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory

Will resolve the issue to refer the 3rd party reference files with installation packages.

Answer 4

None of these methods work in special cases like using a symbolic link to the exe, they will return the location of the link not the actual exe.

So can use QueryFullProcessImageName to get around that:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;

internal static class NativeMethods
{
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    internal static extern bool QueryFullProcessImageName([In]IntPtr hProcess, [In]int dwFlags, [Out]StringBuilder lpExeName, ref int lpdwSize);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    internal static extern IntPtr OpenProcess(
        UInt32 dwDesiredAccess,
        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
        Boolean bInheritHandle,
        Int32 dwProcessId
    );
}

public static class utils
{

    private const UInt32 PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION = 0x400;
    private const UInt32 PROCESS_VM_READ = 0x010;

    public static string getfolder()
    {
        Int32 pid = Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id;
        int capacity = 2000;
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(capacity);
        IntPtr proc;

        if ((proc = NativeMethods.OpenProcess(PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION | PROCESS_VM_READ, false, pid)) == IntPtr.Zero)
            return "";

        NativeMethods.QueryFullProcessImageName(proc, 0, sb, ref capacity);

        string fullPath = sb.ToString(0, capacity);

        return Path.GetDirectoryName(fullPath) + @"\";
    }
}

Answer 5

You can use the following code to get the current application directory.

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory

Answer 6

I mean, why not a p/invoke method?

    using System;
    using System.IO;
    using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
    using System.Text;
    public class AppInfo
    {
            [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, ExactSpelling = false)]
            private static extern int GetModuleFileName(HandleRef hModule, StringBuilder buffer, int length);
            private static HandleRef NullHandleRef = new HandleRef(null, IntPtr.Zero);
            public static string StartupPath
            {
                get
                {
                    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder(260);
                    GetModuleFileName(NullHandleRef, stringBuilder, stringBuilder.Capacity);
                    return Path.GetDirectoryName(stringBuilder.ToString());
                }
            }
    }

You would use it just like the Application.StartupPath:

    Console.WriteLine("The path to this executable is: " + AppInfo.StartupPath + "\\" + System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName + ".exe");