How do I find the current directory?

Question

I am trying to read a file which I read previously successfully. I am reading it through a library, and I am sending it as-is to the library (i.e. "myfile.txt"). I know that the file is read from the working/current directory.

I suspect that the current/working directory has changed somehow. How do i check what is the current/working directory?

Solution 1

Since you added the visual-c++ tag I'm going to suggest the standard windows function to do it. GetCurrentDirectory

Usage:

TCHAR pwd[MAX_PATH];
GetCurrentDirectory(MAX_PATH,pwd);
MessageBox(NULL,pwd,pwd,0);

Solution 2

Boost filesystem library provides a clean solution

current_path()

Solution 3

Use _getcwd to get the current working directory.

Solution 4

This code works for Linux and Windows:

#include <stdio.h>  // defines FILENAME_MAX
#include <unistd.h> // for getcwd()
#include <iostream>

std::string GetCurrentWorkingDir();

int main()
{
   std::string str = GetCurrentWorkingDir();
   std::cout << str;
   return 0;
}
std::string GetCurrentWorkingDir()
{
    std::string cwd("\0",FILENAME_MAX+1);
    return getcwd(&cwd[0],cwd.capacity());
}

Solution 5

Here's the most platform-agnostic answer I got a while ago:

How return a std::string from C's "getcwd" function

It's pretty long-winded, but does exactly what it's supposed to do, with a nice C++ interface (ie it returns a string, not a how-long-are-you-exactly?-(const) char*).

To shut up MSVC warnings about deprecation of getcwd, you can do a

#if _WIN32
    #define getcwd _getcwd
#endif // _WIN32

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Comments

[monoceres]

Interesting. Are you sure it doesn't just write the part that fits in the buffer?

[yaobin]

Really sorry... My program was incorrect.. I just deleted my comments so they wouldn't mislead others. I tested it again: If the buffer size specified is not large enough, the buffer will be kept unmodified and the desired size will be returned.

[NN2]

It doesn't work for me. Error: E1696 cannot open source file "unistd.h". The unistd.h file is not part of C or C++ (cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/59238)

[heLomaN]

Remember to add #include <Windows.h> to code file before this call.

[cup]

Only works if you are using gcc. Does not work if you are using visual studio