[c++] Get path of executable

I know this question has been asked before but I still haven't seen a satisfactory answer, or a definitive "no, this cannot be done", so I'll ask again!

All I want to do is get the path to the currently running executable, either as an absolute path or relative to where the executable is invoked from, in a platform-independent fashion. I though boost::filesystem::initial_path was the answer to my troubles but that seems to only handle the 'platform-independent' part of the question - it still returns the path from which the application was invoked.

For a bit of background, this is a game using Ogre, which I'm trying to profile using Very Sleepy, which runs the target executable from its own directory, so of course on load the game finds no configuration files etc. and promptly crashes. I want to be able to pass it an absolute path to the configuration files, which I know will always live alongside the executable. The same goes for debugging in Visual Studio - I'd like to be able to run $(TargetPath) without having to set the working directory.

This was my solution in Windows. It is called like this:

std::wstring sResult = GetPathOfEXE(64);

Where 64 is the minimum size you think the path will be. GetPathOfEXE calls itself recursively, doubling the size of the buffer each time until it gets a big enough buffer to get the whole path without truncation.

std::wstring GetPathOfEXE(DWORD dwSize)
{
    WCHAR* pwcharFileNamePath;
    DWORD dwLastError;
    HRESULT hrError;
    std::wstring wsResult;
    DWORD dwCount;

    pwcharFileNamePath = new WCHAR[dwSize];

    dwCount = GetModuleFileNameW(
        NULL,
        pwcharFileNamePath,
        dwSize
    );

    dwLastError = GetLastError();

    if (ERROR_SUCCESS == dwLastError)
    {
        hrError = PathCchRemoveFileSpec(
            pwcharFileNamePath,
            dwCount
        );

        if (S_OK == hrError)
        {
            wsResult = pwcharFileNamePath;

            if (pwcharFileNamePath)
            {
                delete pwcharFileNamePath;
            }

            return wsResult;
        }
        else if(S_FALSE == hrError)
        {
            wsResult = pwcharFileNamePath;

            if (pwcharFileNamePath)
            {
                delete pwcharFileNamePath;
            }

            //there was nothing to truncate off the end of the path
            //returning something better than nothing in this case for the user
            return wsResult;
        }
        else
        {
            if (pwcharFileNamePath)
            {
                delete pwcharFileNamePath;
            }

            std::ostringstream oss;
            oss << "could not get file name and path of executing process. error truncating file name off path. last error : " << hrError;
            throw std::runtime_error(oss.str().c_str());
        }
    }
    else if (ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER == dwLastError)
    {
        if (pwcharFileNamePath)
        {
            delete pwcharFileNamePath;
        }

        return GetPathOfEXE(
            dwSize * 2
        );
    }
    else
    {
        if (pwcharFileNamePath)
        {
            delete pwcharFileNamePath;
        }

        std::ostringstream oss;
        oss << "could not get file name and path of executing process. last error : " << dwLastError;
        throw std::runtime_error(oss.str().c_str());
    }
}

This is what I ended up with

The header file looks like this:

#pragma once

#include <string>
namespace MyPaths {

  std::string getExecutablePath();
  std::string getExecutableDir();
  std::string mergePaths(std::string pathA, std::string pathB);
  bool checkIfFileExists (const std::string& filePath);

}

Implementation

#if defined(_WIN32)
    #include <windows.h>
    #include <Shlwapi.h>
    #include <io.h> 

    #define access _access_s
#endif

#ifdef __APPLE__
    #include <libgen.h>
    #include <limits.h>
    #include <mach-o/dyld.h>
    #include <unistd.h>
#endif

#ifdef __linux__
    #include <limits.h>
    #include <libgen.h>
    #include <unistd.h>

    #if defined(__sun)
        #define PROC_SELF_EXE "/proc/self/path/a.out"
    #else
        #define PROC_SELF_EXE "/proc/self/exe"
    #endif

#endif

namespace MyPaths {

#if defined(_WIN32)

std::string getExecutablePath() {
   char rawPathName[MAX_PATH];
   GetModuleFileNameA(NULL, rawPathName, MAX_PATH);
   return std::string(rawPathName);
}

std::string getExecutableDir() {
    std::string executablePath = getExecutablePath();
    char* exePath = new char[executablePath.length()];
    strcpy(exePath, executablePath.c_str());
    PathRemoveFileSpecA(exePath);
    std::string directory = std::string(exePath);
    delete[] exePath;
    return directory;
}

std::string mergePaths(std::string pathA, std::string pathB) {
  char combined[MAX_PATH];
  PathCombineA(combined, pathA.c_str(), pathB.c_str());
  std::string mergedPath(combined);
  return mergedPath;
}

#endif

#ifdef __linux__

std::string getExecutablePath() {
   char rawPathName[PATH_MAX];
   realpath(PROC_SELF_EXE, rawPathName);
   return  std::string(rawPathName);
}

std::string getExecutableDir() {
    std::string executablePath = getExecutablePath();
    char *executablePathStr = new char[executablePath.length() + 1];
    strcpy(executablePathStr, executablePath.c_str());
    char* executableDir = dirname(executablePathStr);
    delete [] executablePathStr;
    return std::string(executableDir);
}

std::string mergePaths(std::string pathA, std::string pathB) {
  return pathA+"/"+pathB;
}

#endif

#ifdef __APPLE__
    std::string getExecutablePath() {
        char rawPathName[PATH_MAX];
        char realPathName[PATH_MAX];
        uint32_t rawPathSize = (uint32_t)sizeof(rawPathName);

        if(!_NSGetExecutablePath(rawPathName, &rawPathSize)) {
            realpath(rawPathName, realPathName);
        }
        return  std::string(realPathName);
    }

    std::string getExecutableDir() {
        std::string executablePath = getExecutablePath();
        char *executablePathStr = new char[executablePath.length() + 1];
        strcpy(executablePathStr, executablePath.c_str());
        char* executableDir = dirname(executablePathStr);
        delete [] executablePathStr;
        return std::string(executableDir);
    }

    std::string mergePaths(std::string pathA, std::string pathB) {
        return pathA+"/"+pathB;
    }
#endif


bool checkIfFileExists (const std::string& filePath) {
   return access( filePath.c_str(), 0 ) == 0;
}

}

Using args[0] and looking for '/' (or '\\'):

#include <string>
#include <iostream> // to show the result

int main( int numArgs, char *args[])
{
    // Get the last position of '/'
    std::string aux(args[0]);

    // get '/' or '\\' depending on unix/mac or windows.
#if defined(_WIN32) || defined(WIN32)
    int pos = aux.rfind('\\');
#else
    int pos = aux.rfind('/');
#endif

    // Get the path and the name
    std::string path = aux.substr(0,pos+1);
    std::string name = aux.substr(pos+1);
    // show results
    std::cout << "Path: " << path << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Name: " << name << std::endl;
}

EDITED: If '/' does not exist, pos==-1 so the result is correct.

SDL2 (https://www.libsdl.org/) library has two functions implemented across a wide spectrum of platforms:

• SDL_GetBasePath
• SDL_GetPrefPath

So if you don't want to reinvent the wheel... sadly, it means including the entire library, although it's got a quite permissive license and one could also just copy the code. Besides, it provides a lot of other cross-platform functionality.

For Windows you can use GetModuleFilename().
For Linux see BinReloc (old, defunct URL) mirror of BinReloc in datenwolf's GitHub repositories.

In case you need to handle unicode paths for Windows:

#include <Windows.h>
#include <iostream>

int wmain(int argc, wchar_t * argv[])
{
    HMODULE this_process_handle = GetModuleHandle(NULL);
    wchar_t this_process_path[MAX_PATH];

    GetModuleFileNameW(NULL, this_process_path, sizeof(this_process_path));

    std::wcout << "Unicode path of this app: " << this_process_path << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

For windows:

GetModuleFileName - returns the exe path + exe filename

To remove filename
PathRemoveFileSpec

in Unix(including Linux) try 'which', in Windows try 'where'.

#include <stdio.h>

#define _UNIX

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
        char cmd[128];
        char buf[128];
        FILE* fp = NULL;
#if defined(_UNIX)
        sprintf(cmd, "which %s > my.path", argv[0]);
#else
        sprintf(cmd, "where %s > my.path", argv[0]);
#endif
        system(cmd);
        fp = fopen("my.path", "r");
        fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), fp);
        fclose(fp);

        printf("full path: %s\n", buf);
        unlink("my.path");

        return 0;
}

For Windows, you have the problem of how to strip the executable from the result of GetModuleFileName(). The Windows API call PathRemoveFileSpec() that Nate used for that purpose in his answer changed between Windows 8 and its predecessors. So how to remain compatible with both and safe? Luckily, there's C++17 (or Boost, if you're using an older compiler). I do this:

#include <windows.h>
#include <string>
#include <filesystem>
namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;

// We could use fs::path as return type, but if you're not aware of
// std::experimental::filesystem, you probably handle filenames
// as strings anyway in the remainder of your code.  I'm on Japanese
// Windows, so wide chars are a must.
std::wstring getDirectoryWithCurrentExecutable()
{
    int size = 256;
    std::vector<wchar_t> charBuffer;
    // Let's be safe, and find the right buffer size programmatically.
    do {
        size *= 2;
        charBuffer.resize(size);
        // Resize until filename fits.  GetModuleFileNameW returns the
        // number of characters written to the buffer, so if the
        // return value is smaller than the size of the buffer, it was
        // large enough.
    } while (GetModuleFileNameW(NULL, charBuffer.data(), size) == size);
    // Typically: c:/program files (x86)/something/foo/bar/exe/files/win64/baz.exe
    // (Note that windows supports forward and backward slashes as path
    // separators, so you have to be careful when searching through a path
    // manually.)

    // Let's extract the interesting part:
    fs::path path(charBuffer.data());  // Contains the full path including .exe
    return path.remove_filename()  // Extract the directory ...
               .w_str();           // ... and convert to a string.
}

The following works as a quick and dirty solution, but note that it is far from being foolproof:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std ;

int main( int argc, char** argv)
{
    cout << argv[0] << endl ;
    return 0;
}

char exePath[512];
CString strexePath;
GetModuleFileName(NULL,exePath,512);
strexePath.Format("%s",exePath);
strexePath = strexePath.Mid(0,strexePath.ReverseFind('\\'));

This is probably the most natural way to do it, while covering most major desktop platforms. I am not certain, but I believe this should work with all the BSD's, not just FreeBSD, if you change the platform macro check to cover all of them. If I ever get around to installing Solaris, I'll be sure to add that platform to the supported list.

Features full UTF-8 support on Windows, which not everyone cares enough to go that far.

procinfo/win32/procinfo.cpp

#ifdef _WIN32
#include "../procinfo.h"
#include <windows.h>
#include <tlhelp32.h>
#include <cstddef>
#include <vector>
#include <cwchar>

using std::string;
using std::wstring;
using std::vector;
using std::size_t;

static inline string narrow(wstring wstr) {
  int nbytes = WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, wstr.c_str(), (int)wstr.length(), NULL, 0, NULL, NULL);
  vector<char> buf(nbytes);
  return string{ buf.data(), (size_t)WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, wstr.c_str(), (int)wstr.length(), buf.data(), nbytes, NULL, NULL) };
}

process_t ppid_from_pid(process_t pid) {        
  process_t ppid;       
  HANDLE hp = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);      
  PROCESSENTRY32 pe = { 0 };        
  pe.dwSize = sizeof(PROCESSENTRY32);       
  if (Process32First(hp, &pe)) {        
    do {        
      if (pe.th32ProcessID == pid) {        
        ppid = pe.th32ParentProcessID;      
        break;      
      }     
    } while (Process32Next(hp, &pe));       
  }     
  CloseHandle(hp);      
  return ppid;      
}

string path_from_pid(process_t pid) {
  string path;
  HANDLE hm = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPMODULE, pid);
  MODULEENTRY32W me = { 0 };
  me.dwSize = sizeof(MODULEENTRY32W);
  if (Module32FirstW(hm, &me)) {
    do {
      if (me.th32ProcessID == pid) {
        path = narrow(me.szExePath);
        break;
      }
    } while (Module32NextW(hm, &me));
  }
  CloseHandle(hm);
  return path;
}
#endif

procinfo/macosx/procinfo.cpp

#if defined(__APPLE__) && defined(__MACH__)
#include "../procinfo.h"
#include <libproc.h>

using std::string;

string path_from_pid(process_t pid) {
  string path;
  char buffer[PROC_PIDPATHINFO_MAXSIZE];
  if (proc_pidpath(pid, buffer, sizeof(buffer)) > 0) {
    path = string(buffer) + "\0";
  }
  return path;
}
#endif

procinfo/linux/procinfo.cpp

#ifdef __linux__
#include "../procinfo.h"
#include <cstdlib>

using std::string;
using std::to_string;

string path_from_pid(process_t pid) {
  string path;
  string link = string("/proc/") + to_string(pid) + string("/exe");
  char *buffer = realpath(link.c_str(), NULL);
  path = buffer ? : "";
  free(buffer);
  return path;
}
#endif

procinfo/freebsd/procinfo.cpp

#ifdef __FreeBSD__
#include "../procinfo.h"
#include <sys/sysctl.h>
#include <cstddef>

using std::string;
using std::size_t;

string path_from_pid(process_t pid) {
  string path;
  size_t length;
  // CTL_KERN::KERN_PROC::KERN_PROC_PATHNAME(pid)
  int mib[4] = { CTL_KERN, KERN_PROC, KERN_PROC_PATHNAME, pid };
  if (sysctl(mib, 4, NULL, &length, NULL, 0) == 0) {
    path.resize(length, '\0');
    char *buffer = path.data();
    if (sysctl(mib, 4, buffer, &length, NULL, 0) == 0) {
      path = string(buffer) + "\0";
    }
  }
  return path;
}
#endif

procinfo/procinfo.cpp

#include "procinfo.h"
#ifdef _WiN32
#include <process.h>
#endif
#include <unistd.h>
#include <cstddef>

using std::string;
using std::size_t;

process_t pid_from_self() {
  #ifdef _WIN32
  return _getpid();
  #else
  return getpid();
  #endif
}

process_t ppid_from_self() {
  #ifdef _WIN32
  return ppid_from_pid(pid_from_self());
  #else
  return getppid();
  #endif
}

string dir_from_pid(process_t pid) {
  string fname = path_from_pid(pid);
  size_t fp = fname.find_last_of("/\\");
  return fname.substr(0, fp + 1);
}

string name_from_pid(process_t pid) {
  string fname = path_from_pid(pid);
  size_t fp = fname.find_last_of("/\\");
  return fname.substr(fp + 1);
}

procinfo/procinfo.h

#ifdef _WiN32
#include <windows.h>
typedef DWORD process_t;
#else
#include <sys/types.h>
typedef pid_t process_t;
#endif
#include <string>

/* windows-only helper function */
process_t ppid_from_pid(process_t pid);

/* get current process process id */
process_t pid_from_self();

/* get parent process process id */
process_t ppid_from_self();

/* std::string possible_result = "C:\\path\\to\\file.exe"; */
std::string path_from_pid(process_t pid);

/* std::string possible_result = "C:\\path\\to\\"; */
std::string dir_from_pid(process_t pid);

/* std::string possible_result = "file.exe"; */
std::string name_from_pid(process_t pid);

This allows getting the full path to the executable of pretty much any process id, except on Windows there are some process's with security attributes which simply will not allow it, so wysiwyg, this solution is not perfect.

To address what the question was asking more precisely, you may do this:

procinfo.cpp

#include "procinfo/procinfo.h"
#include <iostream>

using std::string;
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

int main() {
  cout << dir_from_pid(pid_from_self()) << endl;
  return 0;
}

Build the above file structure with this command:

procinfo.sh

cd "${0%/*}"
g++ procinfo.cpp procinfo/procinfo.cpp procinfo/win32/procinfo.cpp procinfo/macosx/procinfo.cpp procinfo/linux/procinfo.cpp procinfo/freebsd/procinfo.cpp -o procinfo.exe

For downloading a copy of the files listed above:

git clone git://github.com/time-killer-games/procinfo.git

For more cross-platform process-related goodness:

https://github.com/time-killer-games/enigma-dev

See the readme for a list of most of the functions included.

QT provides this with OS abstraction as QCoreApplication::applicationDirPath()

I didn't read if my solution is already posted but on linux and osx you can read the 0 argument in your main function like this:

int main(int argument_count, char **argument_list) {
    std::string currentWorkingDirectoryPath(argument_list[currentWorkingDirectory]);
    std::size_t pos = currentWorkingDirectoryPath.rfind("/");      // position of "live" in str
    currentWorkingDirectoryPath = currentWorkingDirectoryPath.substr (0, pos);

In the first item of argument_list the name of the executable is integrated but removed by the code above.

As of C++17:

Make sure you include std filesystem.

#include <filesystem>

and now you can do this.

std::filesystem::current_path().string()

boost filesystem became part of the standard lib.

if you can't find it try to look under:

std::experimental::filesystem

This method works for both Windows and Linux:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string>
#ifdef _WIN32
#include <direct.h>
#define GetCurrentDir _getcwd
#elif __linux__
#include <unistd.h>
#define GetCurrentDir getcwd
#endif

std::string GetCurrentWorkingDir() 
{
    char buff[FILENAME_MAX];
    GetCurrentDir(buff, FILENAME_MAX);
    std::string current_working_dir(buff);
    return current_working_dir;
}

The boost::dll::program_location function is one of the best cross platform methods of getting the path of the running executable that I know of. The DLL library was added to Boost in version 1.61.0.

The following is my solution. I have tested it on Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, Free BSD, and GNU/Linux.

It requires Boost 1.55.0 or greater. It uses the Boost.Filesystem library directly and the Boost.Locale library and Boost.System library indirectly.

src/executable_path.cpp

#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

#include <boost/filesystem/operations.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp>
#include <boost/predef.h>
#include <boost/version.hpp>
#include <boost/tokenizer.hpp>

#if (BOOST_VERSION > BOOST_VERSION_NUMBER(1,64,0))
#  include <boost/process.hpp>
#endif

#if (BOOST_OS_CYGWIN || BOOST_OS_WINDOWS)
#  include <Windows.h>
#endif

#include <boost/executable_path.hpp>
#include <boost/detail/executable_path_internals.hpp>

namespace boost {

#if (BOOST_OS_CYGWIN || BOOST_OS_WINDOWS)

std::string executable_path(const char* argv0)
{
  typedef std::vector<char> char_vector;
  typedef std::vector<char>::size_type size_type;
  char_vector buf(1024, 0);
  size_type size = buf.size();
  bool havePath = false;
  bool shouldContinue = true;
  do
  {
    DWORD result = GetModuleFileNameA(nullptr, &buf[0], size);
    DWORD lastError = GetLastError();
    if (result == 0)
    {
      shouldContinue = false;
    }
    else if (result < size)
    {
      havePath = true;
      shouldContinue = false;
    }
    else if (
      result == size
      && (lastError == ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER || lastError == ERROR_SUCCESS)
      )
    {
      size *= 2;
      buf.resize(size);
    }
    else
    {
      shouldContinue = false;
    }
  } while (shouldContinue);
  if (!havePath)
  {
    return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
  }
  // On Microsoft Windows, there is no need to call boost::filesystem::canonical or
  // boost::filesystem::path::make_preferred. The path returned by GetModuleFileNameA
  // is the one we want.
  std::string ret = &buf[0];
  return ret;
}

#elif (BOOST_OS_MACOS)

#  include <mach-o/dyld.h>

std::string executable_path(const char* argv0)
{
  typedef std::vector<char> char_vector;
  char_vector buf(1024, 0);
  uint32_t size = static_cast<uint32_t>(buf.size());
  bool havePath = false;
  bool shouldContinue = true;
  do
  {
    int result = _NSGetExecutablePath(&buf[0], &size);
    if (result == -1)
    {
      buf.resize(size + 1);
      std::fill(std::begin(buf), std::end(buf), 0);
    }
    else
    {
      shouldContinue = false;
      if (buf.at(0) != 0)
      {
        havePath = true;
      }
    }
  } while (shouldContinue);
  if (!havePath)
  {
    return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
  }
  std::string path(&buf[0], size);
  boost::system::error_code ec;
  boost::filesystem::path p(
    boost::filesystem::canonical(path, boost::filesystem::current_path(), ec));
  if (ec.value() == boost::system::errc::success)
  {
    return p.make_preferred().string();
  }
  return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
}

#elif (BOOST_OS_SOLARIS)

#  include <stdlib.h>

std::string executable_path(const char* argv0)
{
  std::string ret = getexecname();
  if (ret.empty())
  {
    return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
  }
  boost::filesystem::path p(ret);
  if (!p.has_root_directory())
  {
    boost::system::error_code ec;
    p = boost::filesystem::canonical(
      p, boost::filesystem::current_path(), ec);
    if (ec.value() != boost::system::errc::success)
    {
      return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
    }
    ret = p.make_preferred().string();
  }
  return ret;
}

#elif (BOOST_OS_BSD)

#  include <sys/sysctl.h>

std::string executable_path(const char* argv0)
{
  typedef std::vector<char> char_vector;
  int mib[4]{0};
  size_t size;
  mib[0] = CTL_KERN;
  mib[1] = KERN_PROC;
  mib[2] = KERN_PROC_PATHNAME;
  mib[3] = -1;
  int result = sysctl(mib, 4, nullptr, &size, nullptr, 0);
  if (-1 == result)
  {
    return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
  }
  char_vector buf(size + 1, 0);
  result = sysctl(mib, 4, &buf[0], &size, nullptr, 0);
  if (-1 == result)
  {
    return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
  }
  std::string path(&buf[0], size);
  boost::system::error_code ec;
  boost::filesystem::path p(
    boost::filesystem::canonical(
      path, boost::filesystem::current_path(), ec));
  if (ec.value() == boost::system::errc::success)
  {
    return p.make_preferred().string();
  }
  return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
}

#elif (BOOST_OS_LINUX)

#  include <unistd.h>

std::string executable_path(const char *argv0)
{
  typedef std::vector<char> char_vector;
  typedef std::vector<char>::size_type size_type;
  char_vector buf(1024, 0);
  size_type size = buf.size();
  bool havePath = false;
  bool shouldContinue = true;
  do
  {
    ssize_t result = readlink("/proc/self/exe", &buf[0], size);
    if (result < 0)
    {
      shouldContinue = false;
    }
    else if (static_cast<size_type>(result) < size)
    {
      havePath = true;
      shouldContinue = false;
      size = result;
    }
    else
    {
      size *= 2;
      buf.resize(size);
      std::fill(std::begin(buf), std::end(buf), 0);
    }
  } while (shouldContinue);
  if (!havePath)
  {
    return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
  }
  std::string path(&buf[0], size);
  boost::system::error_code ec;
  boost::filesystem::path p(
    boost::filesystem::canonical(
      path, boost::filesystem::current_path(), ec));
  if (ec.value() == boost::system::errc::success)
  {
    return p.make_preferred().string();
  }
  return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
}

#else

std::string executable_path(const char *argv0)
{
  return detail::executable_path_fallback(argv0);
}

#endif

}

src/detail/executable_path_internals.cpp

#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

#include <boost/filesystem/operations.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp>
#include <boost/predef.h>
#include <boost/version.hpp>
#include <boost/tokenizer.hpp>

#if (BOOST_VERSION > BOOST_VERSION_NUMBER(1,64,0))
#  include <boost/process.hpp>
#endif

#if (BOOST_OS_CYGWIN || BOOST_OS_WINDOWS)
#  include <Windows.h>
#endif

#include <boost/executable_path.hpp>
#include <boost/detail/executable_path_internals.hpp>

namespace boost {
namespace detail {

std::string GetEnv(const std::string& varName)
{
  if (varName.empty()) return "";
#if (BOOST_OS_BSD || BOOST_OS_CYGWIN || BOOST_OS_LINUX || BOOST_OS_MACOS || BOOST_OS_SOLARIS)
  char* value = std::getenv(varName.c_str());
  if (!value) return "";
  return value;
#elif (BOOST_OS_WINDOWS)
  typedef std::vector<char> char_vector;
  typedef std::vector<char>::size_type size_type;
  char_vector value(8192, 0);
  size_type size = value.size();
  bool haveValue = false;
  bool shouldContinue = true;
  do
  {
    DWORD result = GetEnvironmentVariableA(varName.c_str(), &value[0], size);
    if (result == 0)
    {
      shouldContinue = false;
    }
    else if (result < size)
    {
      haveValue = true;
      shouldContinue = false;
    }
    else
    {
      size *= 2;
      value.resize(size);
    }
  } while (shouldContinue);
  std::string ret;
  if (haveValue)
  {
    ret = &value[0];
  }
  return ret;
#else
  return "";
#endif
}

bool GetDirectoryListFromDelimitedString(
  const std::string& str,
  std::vector<std::string>& dirs)
{
  typedef boost::char_separator<char> char_separator_type;
  typedef boost::tokenizer<
    boost::char_separator<char>, std::string::const_iterator,
    std::string> tokenizer_type;
  dirs.clear();
  if (str.empty())
  {
    return false;
  }
#if (BOOST_OS_WINDOWS)
  const std::string os_pathsep(";");
#else
  const std::string os_pathsep(":");
#endif
  char_separator_type pathSep(os_pathsep.c_str());
  tokenizer_type strTok(str, pathSep);
  typename tokenizer_type::iterator strIt;
  typename tokenizer_type::iterator strEndIt = strTok.end();
  for (strIt = strTok.begin(); strIt != strEndIt; ++strIt)
  {
    dirs.push_back(*strIt);
  }
  if (dirs.empty())
  {
    return false;
  }
  return true;
}

std::string search_path(const std::string& file)
{
  if (file.empty()) return "";
  std::string ret;
#if (BOOST_VERSION > BOOST_VERSION_NUMBER(1,64,0))
  {
    namespace bp = boost::process;
    boost::filesystem::path p = bp::search_path(file);
    ret = p.make_preferred().string();
  }
#endif
  if (!ret.empty()) return ret;
  // Drat! I have to do it the hard way.
  std::string pathEnvVar = GetEnv("PATH");
  if (pathEnvVar.empty()) return "";
  std::vector<std::string> pathDirs;
  bool getDirList = GetDirectoryListFromDelimitedString(pathEnvVar, pathDirs);
  if (!getDirList) return "";
  std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator it = pathDirs.cbegin();
  std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator itEnd = pathDirs.cend();
  for ( ; it != itEnd; ++it)
  {
    boost::filesystem::path p(*it);
    p /= file;
    if (boost::filesystem::exists(p) && boost::filesystem::is_regular_file(p))
    {
      return p.make_preferred().string();
    }
  }
  return "";
}

std::string executable_path_fallback(const char *argv0)
{
  if (argv0 == nullptr) return "";
  if (argv0[0] == 0) return "";
#if (BOOST_OS_WINDOWS)
  const std::string os_sep("\\");
#else
  const std::string os_sep("/");
#endif
  if (strstr(argv0, os_sep.c_str()) != nullptr)
  {
    boost::system::error_code ec;
    boost::filesystem::path p(
      boost::filesystem::canonical(
        argv0, boost::filesystem::current_path(), ec));
    if (ec.value() == boost::system::errc::success)
    {
      return p.make_preferred().string();
    }
  }
  std::string ret = search_path(argv0);
  if (!ret.empty())
  {
    return ret;
  }
  boost::system::error_code ec;
  boost::filesystem::path p(
    boost::filesystem::canonical(
      argv0, boost::filesystem::current_path(), ec));
  if (ec.value() == boost::system::errc::success)
  {
    ret = p.make_preferred().string();
  }
  return ret;
}

}
}

include/boost/executable_path.hpp

#ifndef BOOST_EXECUTABLE_PATH_HPP_
#define BOOST_EXECUTABLE_PATH_HPP_

#pragma once

#include <string>

namespace boost {
std::string executable_path(const char * argv0);
}

#endif // BOOST_EXECUTABLE_PATH_HPP_

include/boost/detail/executable_path_internals.hpp

#ifndef BOOST_DETAIL_EXECUTABLE_PATH_INTERNALS_HPP_
#define BOOST_DETAIL_EXECUTABLE_PATH_INTERNALS_HPP_

#pragma once

#include <string>
#include <vector>

namespace boost {
namespace detail {
std::string GetEnv(const std::string& varName);
bool GetDirectoryListFromDelimitedString(
    const std::string& str,
    std::vector<std::string>& dirs);
std::string search_path(const std::string& file);
std::string executable_path_fallback(const char * argv0);
}
}

#endif // BOOST_DETAIL_EXECUTABLE_PATH_INTERNALS_HPP_

I have a complete project, including a test application and CMake build files available at SnKOpen - /cpp/executable_path/trunk. This version is more complete than the version I provided here. It is also supports more platforms.

I have tested the application on all supported operating systems in the following four scenarios.

1. Relative path, executable in current directory: i.e. ./executable_path_test
2. Relative path, executable in another directory: i.e. ./build/executable_path_test
3. Full path: i.e. /some/dir/executable_path_test
4. Executable in path, file name only: i.e. executable_path_test

In all four scenarios, both the executable_path and executable_path_fallback functions work and return the same results.

Notes

This is an updated answer to this question. I updated the answer to take into consideration user comments and suggestions. I also added a link to a project in my SVN Repository.

I'm not sure about Linux, but try this for Windows:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std ;

int main()
{
     char ownPth[MAX_PATH]; 

     // When NULL is passed to GetModuleHandle, the handle of the exe itself is returned
     HMODULE hModule = GetModuleHandle(NULL);
     if (hModule != NULL)
     {
         // Use GetModuleFileName() with module handle to get the path
         GetModuleFileName(hModule, ownPth, (sizeof(ownPth))); 
         cout << ownPth << endl ;
         system("PAUSE");
         return 0;
     }
     else
     {
         cout << "Module handle is NULL" << endl ;
         system("PAUSE");
         return 0;
     }
}

This is a Windows specific way, but it is at least half of your answer.

GetThisPath.h

/// dest is expected to be MAX_PATH in length.
/// returns dest
///     TCHAR dest[MAX_PATH];
///     GetThisPath(dest, MAX_PATH);
TCHAR* GetThisPath(TCHAR* dest, size_t destSize);

GetThisPath.cpp

#include <Shlwapi.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "shlwapi.lib")

TCHAR* GetThisPath(TCHAR* dest, size_t destSize)
{
    if (!dest) return NULL;
    if (MAX_PATH > destSize) return NULL;

    DWORD length = GetModuleFileName( NULL, dest, destSize );
    PathRemoveFileSpec(dest);
    return dest;
}

mainProgram.cpp

TCHAR dest[MAX_PATH];
GetThisPath(dest, MAX_PATH);

I would suggest using platform detection as preprocessor directives to change the implementation of a wrapper function that calls GetThisPath for each platform.

As others mentioned, argv[0] is quite a nice solution, provided that the platform actually passes the executable path, which is surely not less probable than the OS being Windows (where WinAPI can help find the executable path). If you want to strip the string to only include the path to the directory where the executable resides, then using that path to find other application files (like game assets if your program is a game) is perfectly fine, since opening files is relative to the working directory, or, if provided, the root.

This way uses boost + argv. You mentioned this may not be cross platform because it may or may not include the executable name. Well the following code should work around that.

#include <boost/filesystem/operations.hpp>

#include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp>

#include <iostream>

namespace fs = boost::filesystem;


int main(int argc,char** argv)
{
    fs::path full_path( fs::initial_path<fs::path>() );

    full_path = fs::system_complete( fs::path( argv[0] ) );

    std::cout << full_path << std::endl;

    //Without file name
    std::cout << full_path.stem() << std::endl;
    //std::cout << fs::basename(full_path) << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

The following code gets the current working directory which may do what you need

#include <boost/filesystem/operations.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp>

#include <iostream>

namespace fs = boost::filesystem;


int main(int argc,char** argv)
{
    //current working directory
    fs::path full_path( fs::current_path<fs::path>() );

    std::cout << full_path << std::endl;

    std::cout << full_path.stem() << std::endl;
    //std::cout << fs::basepath(full_path) << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Note Just realized that basename() was deprecated so had to switch to .stem()

C++17, windows, unicode, using filesystem new api:

#include "..\Project.h"
#include <filesystem>
using namespace std;
using namespace filesystem;

int wmain(int argc, wchar_t** argv)
{
    auto dir = weakly_canonical(path(argv[0])).parent_path();
    printf("%S", dir.c_str());
    return 0;
}

Suspect this solution should be portable, but don't know how unicode is implemented on other OS's.

weakly_canonical is needed only if you use as Output Directory upper folder references ('..') to simplify path. If you don't use it - remove it.

If you're operating from dynamic link library (.dll /.so), then you might not have argv, then you can consider following solution:

application.h:

#pragma once

//
// https://en.cppreference.com/w/User:D41D8CD98F/feature_testing_macros
//
#ifdef __cpp_lib_filesystem
#include <filesystem>
#else
#include <experimental/filesystem>

namespace std {
    namespace filesystem = experimental::filesystem;
}
#endif

std::filesystem::path getexepath();

application.cpp:

#include "application.h"
#ifdef _WIN32
#include <windows.h>    //GetModuleFileNameW
#else
#include <limits.h>
#include <unistd.h>     //readlink
#endif

std::filesystem::path getexepath()
{
#ifdef _WIN32
    wchar_t path[MAX_PATH] = { 0 };
    GetModuleFileNameW(NULL, path, MAX_PATH);
    return path;
#else
    char result[PATH_MAX];
    ssize_t count = readlink("/proc/self/exe", result, PATH_MAX);
    return std::string(result, (count > 0) ? count : 0);
#endif
}

If using C++17 one can do the following to get the path to the executable.

#include <filesystem>

std::filesystem::path getExecutablePath()
{
    return std::filesystem::canonical("/proc/self/exe");
}

The above answer has been tested on Debian 10 using G++ 9.3.0