926

Is there a way to get the path for the assembly in which the current code resides? I do not want the path of the calling assembly, just the one containing the code.

Basically my unit test needs to read some xml test files which are located relative to the dll. I want the path to always resolve correctly regardless of whether the testing dll is run from TestDriven.NET, the MbUnit GUI or something else.

Edit: People seem to be misunderstanding what I'm asking.

My test library is located in say

C:\projects\myapplication\daotests\bin\Debug\daotests.dll

and I would like to get this path:

C:\projects\myapplication\daotests\bin\Debug\

The three suggestions so far fail me when I run from the MbUnit Gui:

  • Environment.CurrentDirectory gives c:\Program Files\MbUnit

  • System.Reflection.Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(DaoTests)).Location gives C:\Documents and Settings\george\Local Settings\Temp\ ....\DaoTests.dll

  • System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location gives the same as the previous.

Sebastian
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George Mauer
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    This is your solution: var dir = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory; – Jalal El-Shaer May 22 '10 at 09:15
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    This should be the accepted solution. AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory is the correct approach. – aBetterGamer Jun 25 '13 at 15:14
  • See related: [finding-my-main-executables-path-using-assembly-vs-appdomain](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1642827/finding-my-main-executables-path-using-assembly-vs-appdomain) – nawfal Nov 29 '13 at 07:33
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    I came here looking for a solution for a nuget package to read a JSON file from its pacakge directory. Seems that when a nuget package is executed the "AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory" points to the running projects directory, and not the nuget package directory. None of these seem to target the nuget package directory correctly. – Lucas Jul 29 '16 at 11:47
  • @Lucas no it wouldn't because that's not what this question was about (in fact when it was asked, nuget didn't exist) - feel free to start a new question and ping me in there but I can tell you right now that its impossible in most cases. For most projects the nuget directory is `packages` next to the sln file. *BUT* when you compile and distribute things there is no sln file and no packages directory. During compilation, things that are needed (but not everything) is copied into the bin directory. Your best bet is to use a postbuild script to copy the file you want. – George Mauer Jul 29 '16 at 19:12
  • For those reading these comments believing `AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory` is the correct solution, please refer to [this comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52797/how-do-i-get-the-path-of-the-assembly-the-code-is-in#comment26343106_2887537) which offers a better solution. – Neo Jul 17 '19 at 12:16

31 Answers31

1169

Note: Assembly.CodeBase is deprecated in .NET Core/.NET 5+: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.reflection.assembly.codebase?view=net-5.0

Original answer:

I've defined the following property as we use this often in unit testing.

public static string AssemblyDirectory
{
    get
    {
        string codeBase = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase;
        UriBuilder uri = new UriBuilder(codeBase);
        string path = Uri.UnescapeDataString(uri.Path);
        return Path.GetDirectoryName(path);
    }
}

The Assembly.Location property sometimes gives you some funny results when using NUnit (where assemblies run from a temporary folder), so I prefer to use CodeBase which gives you the path in URI format, then UriBuild.UnescapeDataString removes the File:// at the beginning, and GetDirectoryName changes it to the normal windows format.

Dennis Meissel
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John Sibly
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    This has one issue I came across, if your directory name is: c:\My%20Directory then the Uri.UnescapeDataString will return: c:\My Directory This means that File.Exists("c:\My Directory\MyFile.txt") will return false as the correct path is actually "c:\My%20Directory\MyFile.txt" I came across this as our SVN paths have spaces in them and when we check them out it encodes the spaces. – row1 Jul 13 '10 at 09:31
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    damn, that still doesnt work for me :0( Now instead of it giving me the MSBuild path, i get the path of TeamCity C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\temp\buildTmp\SYSTEM_SVR1 2010-08-24 17_34_23\Out but yet another way to get a path :-) – schmoopy Aug 24 '10 at 22:12
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    @John Sibly: returns the path of the executing assembly - not the assembly (as in a .dll) that is being loaded by the calling executable. I need the .dll to be able to set a working directory. +1 though for a helpful answer and a good starting point. – IAbstract Sep 01 '10 at 12:08
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    Be careful when you use this to check File.Exist() as this method will return false on UNC path. Use @Keith's answer instead. – AZ. Dec 08 '11 at 02:22
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    Did not know you could put static before public. Nice to know and i think i prefer for readability – Valamas Jul 03 '13 at 04:27
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    For people that need to know, Assembly is in System.Reflection, and Path is in System.IO. :) – Fallenreaper Oct 25 '13 at 14:55
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    Note: this does not work with network locations (e.g. \\REMOT_EPC\Folder) – Muxa Jan 27 '14 at 22:37
  • Note that the second line will trigger CA2234. Pass in new Uri(codeBase) to the UriBuilder constructor to fix the warning. – Jedidja Jul 01 '14 at 14:40
  • @Jedidja Which version of Visual Studio are you using that triggers the error? Just tried in VS2012 and it seems OK – John Sibly Jul 01 '14 at 16:31
  • @JohnSibly 2012, although via msbuild on the command-line. If you look at the rules that are enabled, is 2234 checked? I'm not sure if it's one of the default ones for Minimum Recommended. – Jedidja Jul 02 '14 at 12:57
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    Also this will not work if the directory has number signs '#' in it. Number signs are allowed in directory and file names in Windows. – Huemac Dec 17 '14 at 11:32
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    `CodeBase` is a mess. Here's my take on it: http://stackoverflow.com/a/28319367/321013 – Martin Ba Feb 04 '15 at 10:50
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    I've relied on this method for years, but it failed me today when the directory path in question contained an '#'. – Simon Nov 21 '17 at 18:05
  • This works the same and seems shorter: string path = new Uri(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase).LocalPath; return Path.GetDirectoryName(path); – aeroson Jan 24 '18 at 08:28
  • This is not testable... All your unit tests that will test that code will fail! see @Jalal answer – Yitzchak Jun 28 '18 at 14:48
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    We used CodeBase for a long time, and have now upgraded to .Net45. The behaviour of CodeBase has changed so this no longer returns the directory. Do not use .CodeBase if you're using newer versions of DotNet! We're now using AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory which works properly for any version of DotNet – Dutchman Mar 11 '19 at 20:24
  • I believe that a solution from my answer below https://stackoverflow.com/a/58051383/1671558 should cover all the use cases and is quite simple. Another user reported it works pretty much everywhere including console, web, unit tests – Ilya Chernomordik Feb 19 '20 at 18:41
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    CodeBase is deprecated in .net core : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.reflection.assembly.codebase?view=net-5.0 . See my answer below https://stackoverflow.com/a/62626131/2663813 – cube45 May 29 '21 at 07:51
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    `CodeBase` has become obsolete. `Assembly.Location` is the preferred alternative. – Stefan Mar 03 '22 at 10:54
368

It's as simple as this:

var dir = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
Jalal El-Shaer
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    This should be the accepted solution. AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory is the correct approach. – aBetterGamer Jun 25 '13 at 15:15
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    thanks for bringing my attention back to this - not sure if that was available at the time I asked the question but it is now. – George Mauer Jun 25 '13 at 18:52
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    No, this is wrong. This returns the path of the ORIGINAL ENTRY POINT not the currently executing code. If you have loaded an assembly manually from a different path, or if it has been loaded from GAC, it will return the wrong result. This answer is correct: http://stackoverflow.com/a/283917/243557 Quicker still is `Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)`. – nathanchere Aug 02 '13 at 09:29
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    Actually this won't work in web applications but as far as I have found the following augmentation should work for any type of application: `AppDomain.CurrentDomain.RelativeSearchPath ?? AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory` – Ilya Chernomordik Aug 14 '13 at 08:28
  • To Ilya Chernomordik. For web applications I use: System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.ApplicationPhysicalPath – Manuel Alves Feb 17 '16 at 10:21
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    This is excellent for unit testing if you just want to get the original bin path of your test assembly (say, to reach auxilary data files in subfolders). The test assembly is the entry point of your code. – MarioDS Apr 15 '16 at 13:34
  • @IlyaChernomordik I believe your solution covers the most scenarios - any scenario I have encountered, unlike any other answer. It deserves more visibility. You could definitely post it as a separate answer. – Timo Sep 22 '19 at 13:21
  • Have posted an answer that seems to work for any kind of application: https://stackoverflow.com/a/58051383/1671558l like @Timo has suggested – Ilya Chernomordik Sep 22 '19 at 16:50
  • This also wont work if you are using .netcore since AppDomains are not supported there: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/porting/net-framework-tech-unavailable – Warren Aug 20 '21 at 19:00
365

Does this help?

//get the full location of the assembly with DaoTests in it
string fullPath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(DaoTests)).Location;

//get the folder that's in
string theDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName( fullPath );
Keith
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  • see my edit, it does not, is this something strange about how MbUnit does things? – George Mauer Sep 09 '08 at 21:32
  • How come? fullPath would be "C:\projects\myapplication\daotests\bin\Debug\daotests.dll" theDirectory would be "C:\projects\myapplication\daotests\bin\Debug" Isn't that what you want? – Keith Sep 09 '08 at 21:35
  • Ahh, no I get you. MSTest does the same thing - everything is copied to a new temp directory every time. – Keith Sep 09 '08 at 21:38
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    Set the xml files to be content, copied with the dll, or resources, read from the dll. – Keith Sep 09 '08 at 21:39
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    Or just `typeof(DaoTests).Assembly` – SLaks Mar 16 '12 at 21:34
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    I'd personally go with a method like this: `public static string GetAssemblyDirectory(){return System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(typeof(T).Assembly.Location);}` – Johny Skovdal Apr 03 '12 at 09:17
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    @JohnySkovdal - why use a generic when the return type is always `string` and the input always `Type`? You could do: `public static string GetAssemblyDirectory(this Type input){return System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(input.Assembly.Location);}` that way you don't need to know the type explicitly: `unknown.GetType().GetAssemblyDirectory();` – Keith Apr 04 '12 at 12:10
  • @Keith - I'm simply replacing the input paramater with a type parameter so I won't have to call typeof, like you do in your example. As for not needing the type explicitly I haven't had a need for that yet, which is why I haven't got an overload that takes a System.Type as input (yet). – Johny Skovdal Apr 19 '12 at 14:44
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    @SLaks @JohnySkovdal @Keith : Hey guys, use `Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()`. It _"gets the assembly that contains the code that is currently executing"_ (from method description). I use this in my AddIn "[EntitiesToDTOs](http://entitiestodtos.codeplex.com)". See [AssemblyHelper.cs](https://entitiestodtos.svn.codeplex.com/svn/EntitiesToDTOs/EntitiesToDTOs/Helpers/AssemblyHelper.cs) for real example. – kzfabi Jun 30 '12 at 05:24
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    Had a problem with the post by @John Silby, as it doesnt look like it works for UNC paths... e.g. \\Server\Folder\File.ext. This one did the trick. +1 – Blueberry Aug 09 '12 at 17:24
  • @FabianFernandez look at the question again, that's not what is wanted here, and it is already mentioned as a non-working solution. – Johny Skovdal Aug 09 '12 at 21:19
  • Yep, I reviewed the question and you are right, seems like I didn't notice that when I saw the question the first time. My bad, thanks! – kzfabi Aug 10 '12 at 23:32
  • How do you get the location without the trailing `bin/Debug/netcoreapp` etc? – Aaron Franke Nov 23 '21 at 00:16
78

Same as John's answer, but a slightly less verbose extension method.

public static string GetDirectoryPath(this Assembly assembly)
{
    string filePath = new Uri(assembly.CodeBase).LocalPath;
    return Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);            
}

Now you can do:

var localDir = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetDirectoryPath();

or if you prefer:

var localDir = typeof(DaoTests).Assembly.GetDirectoryPath();
Phil
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Sneal
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    Did you meant `assembly` instead of `Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()` ? – Dude Pascalou Jan 30 '14 at 16:42
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    As Dude points out, you passed in an argument and failed to use it. – Chris Moschini Oct 23 '14 at 15:42
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    This answer is just plain wrong for the question at hand. A modified version of this answer could give you the path of a given assembly. However, here, we're specifically looking for the executing assembly, and so passing in an assembly makes no sense. An extension method is the wrong tool for the job. – Edward Brey May 27 '15 at 12:48
  • How do you get the location without the trailing `bin/Debug/netcoreapp` etc? – Aaron Franke Nov 23 '21 at 00:18
  • This solves the problem when called like `Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetDirectoryPath()`. And `new Uri` is cleaner than using `UriBuilder` and `UnescapeDataString` in John Sibly's answer. – Fanblade May 23 '22 at 23:10
52

The only solution that worked for me when using CodeBase and UNC Network shares was:

System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(new System.Uri(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase).LocalPath);

It also works with normal URIs too.

Stefan Laity
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Ignacio Soler Garcia
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    This should be the accepted answer. It's really annoying that the default codebase doesn't handle UNC shares correct. – Daniel Gilbert Sep 18 '13 at 13:52
  • This comes crashing down when the folder contains spaces and god knows what other characters... – MarioDS Nov 02 '17 at 12:56
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    I've been using this a lot and have found _one_ scenario where it fails: if this line of code itself is part of a NuGet package which is then used by an application! We can support that scenario too by replacing `GetExecutingAssembly()` by `GetCallingAssembly()`. – Timo Sep 09 '19 at 13:39
  • @Timo: have you verified if this change has side effects? If so please edit the answer to include the fix. – Ignacio Soler Garcia Sep 20 '19 at 18:38
  • @IgnacioSolerGarcia Sadly I must report that it only worked one layer deep, i.e. it fails if the NuGet package was called by another NuGet package! I am now using this (from a comment on this page by Chernomordik): `AppDomain.CurrentDomain.RelativeSearchPath ?? AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory`. The first part is for web applications, and the second for other applications. – Timo Sep 22 '19 at 13:19
40

This should work, unless the assembly is shadow copied:

string path = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location
Pierre Arnaud
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jodonnell
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  • Worth pointing out that the dll IS shadow copied in the case of web applications so consequently most of the suggestions above will return a subfolder of "Temporary ASP.NET Files". This answer at least points out the shadow copy element. – b_levitt Nov 08 '22 at 22:27
28

I believe this would work for any kind of application:

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.RelativeSearchPath ?? AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory
Ilya Chernomordik
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    My experiments show this to be the most foolproof answer, covering not only web and console applications, but also calls from unit tests and NuGet packages (nested to any level of recursion). – Timo Sep 23 '19 at 11:23
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    Thanks for this elegant solution! – ecif Nov 24 '20 at 10:22
  • Also works for ASP.net applications (assembly files are shadow copied to Temporary ASP.NET Files); – b_levitt Nov 08 '22 at 22:28
17

Starting with .net framework 4.6 / .net core 1.0, there is now a AppContext.BaseDirectory, which should give the same result as AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, except that AppDomains were not part of the .net core 1.x /.net standard 1.x API.

AppContext.BaseDirectory

EDIT: The documentation now even state:

In .NET 5.0 and later versions, for bundled assemblies, the value returned is the containing directory of the host executable.

Indeed, Assembly.Location doc doc says :

In .NET 5.0 and later versions, for bundled assemblies, the value returned is an empty string.

cube45
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15
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory

works with MbUnit GUI.

bluish
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user368021
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15

What about this:

System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
huseyint
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  • Does not work with .net 5 bundled assemblies , see https://stackoverflow.com/a/62626131/2663813 – cube45 May 29 '21 at 07:58
12

I suspect that the real issue here is that your test runner is copying your assembly to a different location. There's no way at runtime to tell where the assembly was copied from, but you can probably flip a switch to tell the test runner to run the assembly from where it is and not to copy it to a shadow directory.

Such a switch is likely to be different for each test runner, of course.

Have you considered embedding your XML data as resources inside your test assembly?

Curt Hagenlocher
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  • +1 for pointing out the issue with shadow copying. However, it is indeed possible to determine the original place from the `Assembly.CodeBase`. – tm1 Jun 13 '17 at 07:21
11

How about this ...

string ThisdllDirectory = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);

Then just hack off what you do not need

David C Fuchs
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tl;dr

The concept of an assembly and a DLL file are not the same. Depending on how the assembly was loaded the path information gets lost or is not available at all. Most of the time the provided answers will work, though.


There is one misconception the question and the previous answers have. In most of the cases the provided answers will work just fine but there are cases where it is not possible to get the correct path of the assembly which the current code resides.

The concept of an assembly - which contains executable code - and a dll file - which contains the assembly - are not tightly coupled. An assembly may come from a DLL file but it does not have to.

Using the Assembly.Load(Byte[]) (MSDN) method you can load an assembly directly from a byte array in memory. It does not matter where the byte array comes from. It could be loaded from a file, downloaded from the internet, dynamically generated,...

Here is an example which loads an assembly from a byte array. The path information gets lost after the file was loaded. It is not possible to get the original file path and all previous described methods do not work.

This method is located in the executing assembly which is located at "D:/Software/DynamicAssemblyLoad/DynamicAssemblyLoad/bin/Debug/Runner.exe"

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var fileContent = File.ReadAllBytes(@"C:\Library.dll");

    var assembly = Assembly.Load(fileContent);

    // Call the method of the library using reflection
    assembly
        ?.GetType("Library.LibraryClass")
        ?.GetMethod("PrintPath", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static)
        ?.Invoke(null, null);

    Console.WriteLine("Hello from Application:");
    Console.WriteLine($"GetViaAssemblyCodeBase: {GetViaAssemblyCodeBase(assembly)}");
    Console.WriteLine($"GetViaAssemblyLocation: {assembly.Location}");
    Console.WriteLine($"GetViaAppDomain       : {AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory}");

    Console.ReadLine();
}

This class is located in the Library.dll:

public class LibraryClass
{
    public static void PrintPath()
    {
        var assembly = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(LibraryClass));
        Console.WriteLine("Hello from Library:");
        Console.WriteLine($"GetViaAssemblyCodeBase: {GetViaAssemblyCodeBase(assembly)}");
        Console.WriteLine($"GetViaAssemblyLocation: {assembly.Location}");
        Console.WriteLine($"GetViaAppDomain       : {AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory}");
    }
}

For the sake of completeness here is the implementations of GetViaAssemblyCodeBase() which is the same for both assemblies:

private static string GetViaAssemblyCodeBase(Assembly assembly)
{
    var codeBase = assembly.CodeBase;
    var uri = new UriBuilder(codeBase);
    return Uri.UnescapeDataString(uri.Path);
}

The Runner prints the following output:

Hello from Library:
GetViaAssemblyCodeBase: D:/Software/DynamicAssemblyLoad/DynamicAssemblyLoad/bin/Debug/Runner.exe
GetViaAssemblyLocation:
GetViaAppDomain       : D:\Software\DynamicAssemblyLoad\DynamicAssemblyLoad\bin\Debug\
Hello from Application:
GetViaAssemblyCodeBase: D:/Software/DynamicAssemblyLoad/DynamicAssemblyLoad/bin/Debug/Runner.exe
GetViaAssemblyLocation:
GetViaAppDomain       : D:\Software\DynamicAssemblyLoad\DynamicAssemblyLoad\bin\Debug\

As you can see, neither the code base, location or base directory are correct.

Thomas Weller
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Bennik2000
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9

As far as I can tell, most of the other answers have a few problems.

The correct way to do this for a disk-based (as opposed to web-based), non-GACed assembly is to use the currently executing assembly's CodeBase property.

This returns a URL (file://). Instead of messing around with string manipulation or UnescapeDataString, this can be converted with minimal fuss by leveraging the LocalPath property of Uri.

var codeBaseUrl = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase;
var filePathToCodeBase = new Uri(codeBaseUrl).LocalPath;
var directoryPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePathToCodeBase);
Community
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spender
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    Does not work if path contains `#` (`EscapedCodeBase` works, but EscapedCodeBase does not work if the path contains e.g. `%20` verbatim (which is an allowed character sequence in a Windows path) – Martin Ba Feb 04 '15 at 10:11
  • If we want to have this code in a NuGet package, we can fix that scenario by replacing `GetExecutingAssembly()` by `GetCallingAssembly()`. – Timo Sep 09 '19 at 13:40
8

Here is a VB.NET port of John Sibly's code. Visual Basic is not case sensitive, so a couple of his variable names were colliding with type names.

Public Shared ReadOnly Property AssemblyDirectory() As String
    Get
        Dim codeBase As String = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase
        Dim uriBuilder As New UriBuilder(codeBase)
        Dim assemblyPath As String = Uri.UnescapeDataString(uriBuilder.Path)
        Return Path.GetDirectoryName(assemblyPath)
    End Get
End Property
Peter Mortensen
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Mike Schall
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7

In all these years, nobody has actually mentioned this one. A trick I learned from the awesome ApprovalTests project. The trick is that you use the debugging information in the assembly to find the original directory.

This will not work in RELEASE mode, nor with optimizations enabled, nor on a machine different from the one it was compiled on.

But this will get you paths that are relative to the location of the source code file you call it from

public static class PathUtilities
{
    public static string GetAdjacentFile(string relativePath)
    {
        return GetDirectoryForCaller(1) + relativePath;
    }
    public static string GetDirectoryForCaller()
    {
        return GetDirectoryForCaller(1);
    }


    public static string GetDirectoryForCaller(int callerStackDepth)
    {
        var stackFrame = new StackTrace(true).GetFrame(callerStackDepth + 1);
        return GetDirectoryForStackFrame(stackFrame);
    }

    public static string GetDirectoryForStackFrame(StackFrame stackFrame)
    {
        return new FileInfo(stackFrame.GetFileName()).Directory.FullName + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;
    }
}
George Mauer
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7
var assembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
var assemblyPath = assembly.GetFiles()[0].Name;
var assemblyDir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(assemblyPath);
Pierre Arnaud
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Mark Cidade
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6

I've been using Assembly.CodeBase instead of Location:

Assembly a;
a = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(DaoTests));
string s = a.CodeBase.ToUpper(); // file:///c:/path/name.dll
Assert.AreEqual(true, s.StartsWith("FILE://"), "CodeBase is " + s);
s = s.Substring(7, s.LastIndexOf('/') - 7); // 7 = "file://"
while (s.StartsWith("/")) {
    s = s.Substring(1, s.Length - 1);
}
s = s.Replace("/", "\\");

It's been working, but I'm no longer sure it is 100% correct. The page at http://blogs.msdn.com/suzcook/archive/2003/06/26/assembly-codebase-vs-assembly-location.aspx says:

"The CodeBase is a URL to the place where the file was found, while the Location is the path where it was actually loaded. For example, if the assembly was downloaded from the internet, its CodeBase may start with "http://", but its Location may start with "C:\". If the file was shadow-copied, the Location would be the path to the copy of the file in the shadow copy dir. It’s also good to know that the CodeBase is not guaranteed to be set for assemblies in the GAC. Location will always be set for assemblies loaded from disk, however."

You may want to use CodeBase instead of Location.

dan gibson
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    @Kiquenet: So much code just for converting an URI into a path. Sure it could be improved. Look at Mike Schall's or SoMoS's answer. You should not try to convert URIs on string level, but instead use the suitable objects. OK, it is also clumsy that Assembly.CodeBase returns a string instead of a more suitable object, like URI or FileInfo. – Seven Mar 28 '14 at 20:39
5

in a windows form app, you can simply use Application.StartupPath

but for DLLs and console apps the code is much harder to remember...

string slash = Path.DirectorySeparatorChar.ToString();
string root = Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);

root += slash;
string settingsIni = root + "settings.ini"
gamesguru
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4

You can get the bin path by AppDomain.CurrentDomain.RelativeSearchPath

sumitup
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4

All of the proposed answers work when the developer can change the code to include the required snippet, but if you wanted to do this without changing any code you could use Process Explorer.

It will list all executing dlls on the system, you may need to determine the process id of your running application, but that is usually not too difficult.

I've written a full description of how do this for a dll inside II - http://nodogmablog.bryanhogan.net/2016/09/locating-and-checking-an-executing-dll-on-a-running-web-server/

Bryan
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  • Note that first of all, the code in the article is fairly IIS-centric and second, it gives you (I believe) all *currently loaded* dlls, not what is running at any one time. – George Mauer Sep 18 '16 at 15:04
  • The example given relates to iis, but the same steps apply if the dll is running in a process outside of iis. It's just a matter of identifying the process id. I'll update article to note that. Thanks for the suggestion. – Bryan Sep 19 '16 at 12:38
3

The current directory where you exist.

Environment.CurrentDirectory;  // This is the current directory of your application

If you copy the .xml file out with build you should find it.

or

System.Reflection.Assembly assembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(SomeObject));

// The location of the Assembly
assembly.Location;
David Basarab
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  • this will be problematic if the assembly has been [shadow copied](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404279%28v=vs.110%29.aspx). – spender Jun 17 '14 at 10:17
  • +1520! `Environment.CurrentDirectory` works if you are using reflection in MSBuild task class, where the executing assembly resides in GAC and your code is somewhere else. – vulcan raven Aug 10 '14 at 17:37
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    In general CurrentDirectory does not tell you where your executables reside. That's not what it is used for. It just happens to frequently be the same location the executables are in, so a lot of programmers don't understand the difference. Then they end up creating trouble for some of the end users that expected the application to understand proper use of CurrentDirectory. – Bent Tranberg Nov 06 '16 at 19:55
3

You will get incorrect directory if a path contains the '#' symbol. So I use a modification of the John Sibly answer that is combination UriBuilder.Path and UriBuilder.Fragment:

public static string AssemblyDirectory
{
    get
    {
        string codeBase = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase;
        UriBuilder uri = new UriBuilder(codeBase);
        //modification of the John Sibly answer    
        string path = Uri.UnescapeDataString(uri.Path.Replace("/", "\\") + 
          uri.Fragment.Replace("/", "\\"));
        return Path.GetDirectoryName(path);
     }
}
3

For ASP.Net, it doesn't work. I found a better covered solution at Why AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory not contains "bin" in asp.net app?. It works for both Win Application and ASP.Net Web Application.

public string ApplicationPath
    {
        get
        {
            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.RelativeSearchPath))
            {
                return AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory; //exe folder for WinForms, Consoles, Windows Services
            }
            else
            {
                return AppDomain.CurrentDomain.RelativeSearchPath; //bin folder for Web Apps 
            }
        }
    }
TPG
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2
string path = Path.GetDirectoryName(typeof(DaoTests).Module.FullyQualifiedName);
Jesse C. Slicer
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1

This should work:

ExeConfigurationFileMap fileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
Assembly asm = Assembly.GetCallingAssembly();
String path = Path.GetDirectoryName(new Uri(asm.EscapedCodeBase).LocalPath);

string strLog4NetConfigPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(path, "log4net.config");

I am using this to deploy DLL file libraries along with some configuration file (this is to use log4net from within the DLL file).

Peter Mortensen
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mmmmmm
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1

This is what I came up with. In between web projects, unit tests (nunit and resharper test runner); I found this worked for me.

I have been looking for code to detect what configuration the build is in, Debug/Release/CustomName. Alas, the #if DEBUG. So if someone can improve that!

Feel free to edit and improve.

Getting app folder. Useful for web roots, unittests to get the folder of test files.

public static string AppPath
{
    get
    {
        DirectoryInfo appPath = new DirectoryInfo(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory);

        while (appPath.FullName.Contains(@"\bin\", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)
                || appPath.FullName.EndsWith(@"\bin", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
        {
            appPath = appPath.Parent;
        }
        return appPath.FullName;
    }
}

Getting bin folder: Useful for executing assemblies using reflection. If files are copied there due to build properties.

public static string BinPath
{
    get
    {
        string binPath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;

        if (!binPath.Contains(@"\bin\", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)
            && !binPath.EndsWith(@"\bin", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
        {
            binPath = Path.Combine(binPath, "bin");
            //-- Please improve this if there is a better way
            //-- Also note that apps like webapps do not have a debug or release folder. So we would just return bin.
#if DEBUG
            if (Directory.Exists(Path.Combine(binPath, "Debug"))) 
                        binPath = Path.Combine(binPath, "Debug");
#else
            if (Directory.Exists(Path.Combine(binPath, "Release"))) 
                        binPath = Path.Combine(binPath, "Release");
#endif
        }
            return binPath;
    }
}
Valamas
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1

I find my solution adequate for the retrieval of the location.

var executingAssembly = new FileInfo((Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)).Directory.FullName;
Tez Wingfield
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1

I got the same behaviour in the NUnit in the past. By default NUnit copies your assembly into the temp directory. You can change this behaviour in the NUnit settings:

enter image description here

Maybe TestDriven.NET and MbUnit GUI have the same settings.

Andrey Bushman
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-2

Web application?

Server.MapPath("~/MyDir/MyFile.ext")
user2009677
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    @christiandev this is an answer but it maybe seems to be an answer to the wrong question. From the question its pretty clear that this is not a web application but an assembly being run with MbUnit. That being said, the answer is still not really correct due to Asp.Net shadow copying (although it could conceivably be what someone landing on this question is looking for). – George Mauer Jun 18 '14 at 14:33
-2

I use this to get the path to the Bin Directory:

var i = Environment.CurrentDirectory.LastIndexOf(@"\");
var path = Environment.CurrentDirectory.Substring(0,i); 

You get this result:

"c:\users\ricooley\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\Windows_Test_Project\Windows_Test_Project\bin"

Yuck
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rcooley56
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    I don't see a reason to avoid Path.getDirectoryName here – Max Keller May 30 '12 at 09:24
  • @MaxKeller If you don't see reasons, it doesn't mean that it is right. This alternative method of Path.GetDirectoryName is ten times faster. – Ruslan Veselov Nov 05 '15 at 12:34
  • This answer is wrong: The directory of the executing assembly will often coincidentally be the same as the directory of the executing assembly, but it's not necessarily it. Also, this alternate to Path.GetDirectoryName is not portable (it's specific to Windows). – John B. Lambe Jan 20 '23 at 12:31