Best Way to Get Application Folder Path

Best way to get application folder path

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory is probably the most useful for accessing files whose location is relative to the application install directory.

In an ASP.NET application, this will be the application root directory, not the bin subfolder - which is probably what you usually want. In a client application, it will be the directory containing the main executable.

In a VSTO 2005 application, it will be the directory containing the VSTO managed assemblies for your application, not, say, the path to the Excel executable.

The others may return different directories depending on your environment - for example see @Vimvq1987's answer.

CodeBase is the place where a file was found and can be a URL beginning with http://. In which case Location will probably be the assembly download cache. CodeBase is not guaranteed to be set for assemblies in the GAC.

UPDATE
These days (.NET Core, .NET Standard 1.3+ or .NET Framework 4.6+) it's better to use AppContext.BaseDirectory rather than AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory. Both are equivalent, but multiple AppDomains are no longer supported.

How can I get the application's path in a .NET console application?

System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location¹

Combine that with System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName if all you want is the directory.

¹As per Mr.Mindor's comment:

System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location returns where the executing assembly is currently located, which may or may not be where the assembly is located when not executing. In the case of shadow copying assemblies, you will get a path in a temp directory. System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase will return the 'permanent' path of the assembly.

Get current folder path

You should not use Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() in your case, as the current directory may differ from the execution folder, especially when you execute the program through a shortcut.

It's better to use Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location); for your purpose. This returns the pathname where the currently executing assembly resides.

While my suggested approach allows you to differentiate between the executing assembly, the entry assembly or any other loaded assembly, as Soner Gönül said in his answer,

System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath);

may also be sufficient. This would be equal to

System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location);

Correct way to get Application directory path in Mac App

You should not be writing anything to the bundle or the folder where the app is located. And if your app is sandboxed, you wouldn't be able to.

Use the "Application Support" folder instead:

NSError *error;
NSFileManager *manager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSURL *applicationSupport = [manager URLForDirectory:NSApplicationSupportDirectory inDomain:NSUserDomainMask appropriateForURL:nil create:false error:&error];
NSString *identifier = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundleIdentifier];
NSURL *folder = [applicationSupport URLByAppendingPathComponent:identifier];
[manager createDirectoryAtURL:folder withIntermediateDirectories:true attributes:nil error:&error];
NSURL *fileURL = [folder URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"TSPlogfile.txt"];

I've used NSURL implementation above, but the same concept applies if using paths, too.

See File System Programming Guide: macOS Library Directory Details.

You ask:

Can you explain why the [[NSFileManager defaultManager] currentDirectoryPath] fails while running app from finder?

The folder you happen to be looking at in Finder is not the same thing as the "current directory" when the app is run. In short, the "current directory" has nothing to do with where the app is located.

What is the best way to determine application root directory?

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory is my go to way of doing so.

However:

Application.StartupPath gets the directory of your executable

AppDomain.BaseDirectory gets the directory used to resolve assemblies

Since they can be different, perhaps you want to use Application.StartupPath, unless you care about assembly resolution.

How to get application path

The AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory property gets the base directory that the assembly resolver uses to probe for assemblies.

So it's functioning 100% as it should. If you were to build your application, cut and paste it somewhere else in another folder or drive. Those changes would be reflected in this property.

Also, you mentioned that you do not want this part bin\Debug, so you want what's before that? Please be specific.

How to get folder path in Command Prompt stand by, not in C# Console App?

When you call Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location then it will return the path of the executing .exe file.

Assuming that Sophairk is the username of your user, then you can do this:

 string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile);

If it is the current directory that you want, then you can do this

string path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();

You can check out the documentation here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.environment.specialfolder?view=net-6.0

To see what other "Special Folders" are available.