Get path of executable

Question

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

User · Answer

QT provides this with OS abstraction as QCoreApplication  applicationDirPath

User · Answer

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  lt  lt   could not get file name and path of executing process  error truncating file name off path  last error      lt  lt  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  lt  lt   could not get file name and path of executing process  last error      lt  lt  dwLastError          throw std  runtime error oss str   c str

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In case you need to handle unicode paths for Windows    include  lt Windows h gt   include  lt iostream gt   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  lt  lt   Unicode path of this app     lt  lt  this process path  lt  lt  std  endl       return 0

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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  lt boost filesystem operations hpp gt    include  lt boost filesystem path hpp gt    include  lt iostream gt   namespace fs   boost  filesystem    int main int argc char   argv        fs  path full path  fs  initial path lt fs  path gt            full path   fs  system complete  fs  path  argv 0            std  cout  lt  lt  full path  lt  lt  std  endl         Without file name     std  cout  lt  lt  full path stem    lt  lt  std  endl        std  cout  lt  lt  fs  basename full path   lt  lt  std  endl       return 0      The following code gets the current working directory which may do what you need   include  lt boost filesystem operations hpp gt   include  lt boost filesystem path hpp gt    include  lt iostream gt   namespace fs   boost  filesystem    int main int argc char   argv          current working directory     fs  path full path  fs  current path lt fs  path gt            std  cout  lt  lt  full path  lt  lt  std  endl       std  cout  lt  lt  full path stem    lt  lt  std  endl        std  cout  lt  lt  fs  basepath full path   lt  lt  std  endl       return 0      Note Just realized that basename   was deprecated so had to switch to  stem

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C  17  windows  unicode  using filesystem new api    include     Project h   include  lt filesystem gt  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  lt filesystem gt   else  include  lt experimental filesystem gt   namespace std       namespace filesystem   experimental  filesystem     endif  std  filesystem  path getexepath      application cpp    include  application h   ifdef  WIN32  include  lt windows h gt       GetModuleFileNameW  else  include  lt limits h gt   include  lt unistd h gt        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  gt  0    count   0    endif

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As of C  17   Make sure you include std filesystem    include  lt filesystem gt    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

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There is no cross platform way that I know     For Linux  readlink  proc self exe  Windows  GetModuleFileName

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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  lt windows h gt   include  lt tlhelp32 h gt   include  lt cstddef gt   include  lt vector gt   include  lt cwchar gt   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 lt char gt  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   amp pe                 do                 if  pe th32ProcessID    pid                    ppid   pe th32ParentProcessID                break                           while  Process32Next hp   amp 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   amp me         do         if  me th32ProcessID    pid            path   narrow me szExePath           break                while  Module32NextW hm   amp me          CloseHandle hm     return path     endif   procinfo macosx procinfo cpp   if defined   APPLE     amp  amp  defined   MACH     include     procinfo h   include  lt libproc h gt   using std  string   string path from pid process t pid      string path    char buffer PROC PIDPATHINFO MAXSIZE     if  proc pidpath pid  buffer  sizeof buffer    gt  0        path   string buffer      0         return path     endif   procinfo linux procinfo cpp   ifdef   linux    include     procinfo h   include  lt cstdlib gt   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  lt sys sysctl h gt   include  lt cstddef gt   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   amp length  NULL  0     0        path resize length    0        char  buffer   path data        if  sysctl mib  4  buffer   amp length  NULL  0     0          path   string buffer      0               return path     endif   procinfo procinfo cpp   include  procinfo h   ifdef  WiN32  include  lt process h gt   endif  include  lt unistd h gt   include  lt cstddef gt   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  lt windows h gt  typedef DWORD process t   else  include  lt sys types h gt  typedef pid t process t   endif  include  lt string gt      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  lt iostream gt   using std  string  using std  cout  using std  endl   int main       cout  lt  lt  dir from pid pid from self     lt  lt  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

User · Answer

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

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This method works for both Windows and Linux    include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt string gt   ifdef  WIN32  include  lt direct h gt   define GetCurrentDir  getcwd  elif   linux    include  lt unistd h gt   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

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If using C  17 one can do the following to get the path to the executable   include  lt filesystem gt   std  filesystem  path getExecutablePath         return std  filesystem  canonical  quot  proc self exe quot       The above answer has been tested on Debian 10 using G   9 3 0

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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

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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  quot   quot            position of  quot live quot  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

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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  lt cstdio gt   include  lt cstdlib gt   include  lt algorithm gt   include  lt iterator gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt vector gt    include  lt boost filesystem operations hpp gt   include  lt boost filesystem path hpp gt   include  lt boost predef h gt   include  lt boost version hpp gt   include  lt boost tokenizer hpp gt    if  BOOST VERSION  gt  BOOST VERSION NUMBER 1 64 0      include  lt boost process hpp gt   endif   if  BOOST OS CYGWIN    BOOST OS WINDOWS     include  lt Windows h gt   endif   include  lt boost executable path hpp gt   include  lt boost detail executable path internals hpp gt   namespace boost     if  BOOST OS CYGWIN    BOOST OS WINDOWS   std  string executable path const char  argv0      typedef std  vector lt char gt  char vector    typedef std  vector lt char gt   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   amp buf 0   size       DWORD lastError   GetLastError        if  result    0              shouldContinue   false            else if  result  lt  size              havePath   true        shouldContinue   false            else if         result    size        amp  amp   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    amp buf 0     return ret      elif  BOOST OS MACOS      include  lt mach-o dyld h gt   std  string executable path const char  argv0      typedef std  vector lt char gt  char vector    char vector buf 1024  0     uint32 t size   static cast lt uint32 t gt  buf size       bool havePath   false    bool shouldContinue   true    do         int result    NSGetExecutablePath  amp buf 0    amp 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  amp 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  lt stdlib h gt   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  lt sys sysctl h gt   std  string executable path const char  argv0      typedef std  vector lt char gt  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   amp size  nullptr  0     if  -1    result          return detail  executable path fallback argv0         char vector buf size   1  0     result   sysctl mib  4   amp buf 0    amp size  nullptr  0     if  -1    result          return detail  executable path fallback argv0         std  string path  amp 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  lt unistd h gt   std  string executable path const char  argv0      typedef std  vector lt char gt  char vector    typedef std  vector lt char gt   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    amp buf 0   size       if  result  lt  0              shouldContinue   false            else if  static cast lt size type gt  result   lt  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  amp 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  lt cstdio gt   include  lt cstdlib gt   include  lt algorithm gt   include  lt iterator gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt vector gt    include  lt boost filesystem operations hpp gt   include  lt boost filesystem path hpp gt   include  lt boost predef h gt   include  lt boost version hpp gt   include  lt boost tokenizer hpp gt    if  BOOST VERSION  gt  BOOST VERSION NUMBER 1 64 0      include  lt boost process hpp gt   endif   if  BOOST OS CYGWIN    BOOST OS WINDOWS     include  lt Windows h gt   endif   include  lt boost executable path hpp gt   include  lt boost detail executable path internals hpp gt   namespace boost   namespace detail    std  string GetEnv const std  string amp  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 lt char gt  char vector    typedef std  vector lt char gt   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     amp value 0   size       if  result    0              shouldContinue   false            else if  result  lt  size              haveValue   true        shouldContinue   false            else             size    2        value resize size             while  shouldContinue     std  string ret    if  haveValue          ret    amp value 0         return ret   else   return      endif    bool GetDirectoryListFromDelimitedString    const std  string amp  str    std  vector lt std  string gt  amp  dirs      typedef boost  char separator lt char gt  char separator type    typedef boost  tokenizer lt      boost  char separator lt char gt   std  string  const iterator      std  string gt  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 amp  file      if  file empty    return       std  string ret   if  BOOST VERSION  gt  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 lt std  string gt  pathDirs    bool getDirList   GetDirectoryListFromDelimitedString pathEnvVar  pathDirs     if   getDirList  return       std  vector lt std  string gt   const iterator it   pathDirs cbegin      std  vector lt std  string gt   const iterator itEnd   pathDirs cend      for     it    itEnd    it          boost  filesystem  path p  it       p    file      if  boost  filesystem  exists p   amp  amp  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  lt string gt   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  lt string gt   include  lt vector gt   namespace boost   namespace detail   std  string GetEnv const std  string amp  varName   bool GetDirectoryListFromDelimitedString      const std  string amp  str      std  vector lt std  string gt  amp  dirs   std  string search path const std  string amp  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    Relative path  executable in current directory  i e    executable path test Relative path  executable in another directory  i e    build executable path test Full path  i e   some dir executable path test 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

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The following works as a quick and dirty solution  but note that it is far from being foolproof    include  lt iostream gt   using namespace std    int main  int argc  char   argv        cout  lt  lt  argv 0   lt  lt  endl       return 0

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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  lt Shlwapi h gt   pragma comment lib   shlwapi lib    TCHAR  GetThisPath TCHAR  dest  size t destSize        if   dest  return NULL      if  MAX PATH  gt  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

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I m not sure about Linux  but try this for Windows    include  lt windows h gt   include  lt iostream gt   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  lt  lt  ownPth  lt  lt  endl            system  PAUSE             return 0              else                 cout  lt  lt   Module handle is NULL   lt  lt  endl            system  PAUSE             return 0

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char exePath 512   CString strexePath  GetModuleFileName NULL exePath 512   strexePath Format   s  exePath   strexePath   strexePath Mid 0 strexePath ReverseFind

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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  lt windows h gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt filesystem gt  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 lt wchar t gt  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

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in Unix including Linux  try  which   in Windows try  where     include  lt stdio h gt    define  UNIX  int main int argc  char   argv            char cmd 128           char buf 128           FILE  fp   NULL   if defined  UNIX          sprintf cmd   which  s  gt  my path   argv 0     else         sprintf cmd   where  s  gt  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

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This is what I ended up with   The header file looks like this    pragma once   include  lt string gt  namespace MyPaths      std  string getExecutablePath      std  string getExecutableDir      std  string mergePaths std  string pathA  std  string pathB     bool checkIfFileExists  const std  string amp  filePath         Implementation    if defined  WIN32       include  lt windows h gt       include  lt Shlwapi h gt       include  lt io h gt         define access  access s  endif   ifdef   APPLE        include  lt libgen h gt       include  lt limits h gt       include  lt mach-o dyld h gt       include  lt unistd h gt   endif   ifdef   linux        include  lt limits h gt       include  lt libgen h gt       include  lt unistd h gt        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   amp 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 amp  filePath       return access  filePath c str    0      0

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For Windows you can use GetModuleFilename    For Linux see BinReloc  old  defunct URL  mirror of BinReloc in datenwolf s GitHub repositories

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For windows   GetModuleFileName - returns the exe path   exe filename   To remove filename  PathRemoveFileSpec

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Using args 0  and looking for      or          include  lt string gt   include  lt iostream gt     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  lt  lt   Path     lt  lt  path  lt  lt  std  endl      std  cout  lt  lt   Name     lt  lt  name  lt  lt  std  endl      EDITED  If     does not exist  pos  -1 so the result is correct

[c++] Get path of executable

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