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What is the best method of getting the path the C# executable is running from?

I need to use it for temp folders etc and currently I'm using:

Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase)

But I then need to do a:

.Replace("file:\\", string.Empty)

as this gives me a URI type path (i.e. has file:\ at the start) which is unusable with some other parts of my code.

neildeadman
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9 Answers9

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Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)
Stephan Bauer
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  • This is the only reliable way to get the executable's path across any c# project (winforms, wpf, console, etc.) and certainly the best answer to the original question. But, in this case it does sound like an app-specific folder in ApplicationData should be used. I would refrain from using the temp directory unless it is truly temporary (i.e.: the files won't be used for more than a few seconds or during a specific process).. I clear out my temp folder regularly. – kodybrown Jul 28 '14 at 16:43
  • Why do you need "Path.GetDirectoryName()", the Location property seems to provide the full path already. – Mike K Aug 19 '14 at 00:02
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    @MikeK Location includes the file name but only the directory is needed (see the title of this question) ;-) – Stephan Bauer Aug 19 '14 at 04:41
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Not an accurate answer to your question, however I would suggest to have a look at:

Path.GetTempFileName()

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.path.gettempfilename.aspx

Andreas
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    I would say that this *is* the accurate answer. Temp files are supposed to go to the temp folder. That's what it's there for. – Fredrik Mörk Aug 11 '11 at 11:55
6

Try with Environment.CurrentDirectory This returns the folder of your currently working directory.

Huske
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  • I was using this and it worked fine... until the working directory was set to a different path than the executable! – Etienne Charland May 21 '22 at 18:26
  • This works when building a single file console app where Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location) fails – Echostorm Aug 11 '23 at 11:56
3

For temp folders etc. you should NOT use the executing directory for security reasons... MS has something built-in for this:

You can use ApplicationData (for roaming users) or LocalApplicationData (for non-roaming users) or CommonApplicationData (for non-user-related things) from Environment.SpecialFolder - anything (files+folders) you create within those folders is already setup with the needed permissions/rights for the user running you app - nobody else (except perhaps Administrator) can go there... to make it even more secure you could encrypt data you put there...

see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.specialfolder.aspx

Yahia
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1

If the assembly has been shadow copied then Assembly.Location will point to the shadow copy of the dll.

If you want to know the location of the build output directory use Assembly.CodeBase, i.e.:

Path.GetDirectoryName(new Uri(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase).LocalPath)

Useful if you want to access other resources from the directory of the assembly for example when running test suite.

Bjorn Reppen
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1
  • .NET Core 3.0 introduced IHostEnvironment.ContentRootPath.
  • .NET Core 2.1 introduced IHostingEnvironment.ContentRootPath (obsolete since Core 3.0).

Personally I find that these are what I generally need: the place where included content is located.

I can confirm that IHostEnvironment.ContentRootPath also returns the desired result when running as a unit test. (Tested with xUnit, but the test framework should not matter.)

Timo
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  • Unfortunately, Docker containers seem to fail to get the correct value in this property at the time of writing. When using a web host (and possibly when using a generic host), we should be able to fix it with something like `new WebHostBuilder().UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())` from `Main`. For Azure Functions using Docker containers, however, this is not available. – Timo Aug 24 '20 at 11:26
  • For Azure Functions, we could resort to the following ugliness: `Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(new Uri(this.GetType().Assembly.GetName().CodeBase).LocalPath), "..")`. The combine with the `".."` is to navigate up one directory, out of the extra nested bin folder that Functions apps create. Obviously, needing different code for Functions is less than ideal. – Timo Aug 24 '20 at 11:45
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Try:

Application.StartupPath

It should return the path without the executable filename.

Rolice
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    `Application.StartupPath` is only available for WinForms (i.e.: by referencing the System.Windows.Forms assembly).. [link](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.application.startuppath(v=vs.110).aspx) – kodybrown Jul 28 '14 at 16:31
  • Yep, forgot to mention that, @wasatchwizard, +1 to your comment. – Rolice Aug 07 '14 at 18:29
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For self-contained single file applications (available since .NET Core 3.0) you should use System.AppContext.BaseDirectory. The assembly location will be empty so you can't rely on it.

Example

using System.Reflection;

Console.WriteLine($"AppContext.BaseDirectory: {AppContext.BaseDirectory}");
Console.WriteLine($"Assembly.Location: {Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)}");

Console.ReadLine();

Output (Not published):

AppContext.BaseDirectory: C:\[..]\bin\Debug\net6.0-windows\win-x64\
Assembly.Location: C:\[..]\bin\Debug\net6.0-windows\win-x64

Output (Published / Single File):

AppContext.BaseDirectory: C:\[..]\bin\Debug\net6.0-windows\win-x64\publish\
Assembly.Location:
Thomas Glaser
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0

string executableLocation = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location); string txtfile = Path.Combine(executableLocation, "example.txt");

Khan Taimoor Malik
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