Re: Finding out executable location from a c program

FROM : Paul Sargent
DATE : Mon Nov 19 17:37:25 2007

On 19 Nov 2007, at 16:12, I. Savant wrote:

>>  I would need to find out the directory where the current executable
>> resides to find some stuff whose location I know relative to the
>> executable location.

>
> The first argument ( argv[0] ) is the path to your executable.


Not true. Argv[0] is the first argument given on the command line when 
your code was invoked. This might be a full path, or it might be just 
the executable name.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  printf("Arg 0 is %s\n", argv[0]);
  return 0;
}

Compiled and then placed into my path.

Dr-Stupid:~ pauls$ /Users/pauls/bin/a.out
Arg 0 is /Users/pauls/bin/a.out
Dr-Stupid:~ pauls$ bin/a.out
Arg 0 is bin/a.out
Dr-Stupid:~ pauls$ a.out
Arg 0 is a.out

There's no guaranteed consistency there, unless you know how it'll be 
invoked.

I can't think of a way of doing it. It's normal practise to put 
support files in a location like /usr/local/lib or similar rather than 
with the executable on Unix. On a Mac the solution is normally to 
package it inside the app bundle and use the API to access that.