Get application directory in both console application and its unit tests

Question

I have a console application project with NUnit tests in the same project.

I have been trying to apply this solution.

At run-time the solution worked OK. But when I ran the tests by Resharper test runner or NUnit GUI runner, GetExecutingAssembly().Location returned a path like this: d:\Temp\f4ctjcmr.ofr\nojeuppd.fmf\R2Nbs\assembly\dl3\9766f38e\b9496fb3_43cccf01\.
Disabling shadow-copying fixed the problem in both test runners, but new problems appeared (VS is not able to build the project until NUnit Gui is closed). Is there a better solution than disabling shadow-copying?

Update: Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()[0] returned C:\Program Files (x86)\NUnit 2.6.3\bin\ in the tests running in NUnit Gui with shadow-copying enabled.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 09 '14 at 16:12

Alright, this goes into fun territory.

You should be mocking out this dependency.

Example code:

public interface IApplicationRootService {
    Uri GetApplicationRoot();
}

public class ApplicationRootService : IApplicationRootService {
    public Uri GetApplicationRoot() {
        //etc
    }
}

Now, apply liberally to your code where you're calling getexecutingassembly and whatnot. Inject the IApplicationRootService as a constructor dependency.

Ex:

public class DoWork {
    private IApplicationRootService _applicationRootService;
    public DoWork(IApplicationRootService applicationRootService) {
        _applicationRootService = applicationRootService;
    }
    public void DoSomething() {
        var appRoot = _applicationRooService.GetApplicationRoot();
        //do your stuff
    }
}

Now when you're testing, use a mocking service and mock out the return value of application root to the appropriate folder for nunit to go sniffin'.

Ex code, using nunit and moq:

[Test]
public static void test_do_something() {
    var applicationRootService = new Mock<IApplicationRootService>();
    applicationRootService.Setup(service => service.GetApplicationRoot()).Returns(new Uri("MyRoot", UriKind.Relative);
    var myClass = new DoWork(applicationRootService.Object);
    //continue testing!
}

Thank you for you answer. I will probably do this if I do not have a better option. — Andrej Adamenko, Sep 09 '14 at 16:16

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

The following solution worked for me. Please vote to its author if it helps you.

As explained in the MSDN forums post, How to convert URI path to normal filepath?, I used the following:

// Get normal filepath of this assembly's permanent directory
var path = new Uri(
        System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
        System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase)
    ).LocalPath;

Get application directory in both console application and its unit tests

2 Answers2