Best way to get application folder path

Question

I see that there are some ways to get the application folder path:

1. Application.StartupPath
2. System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName( System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)
3. AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory
4. System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
5. Environment.CurrentDirectory
6. System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName( System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase)
7. System.IO.Path.GetDirectory(Application.ExecutablePath)

What is the best way depending on the situation?

Answer 1

For a web application, to get the current web application root directory, generally call by web page for the current incoming request:

HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath();

System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.ApplicationPhysicalPath;

Above code description

Answer 2

In my experience, the best way is a combination of these.

1. System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase Will give you the bin folder
2. Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() Works fine on .Net Core but not .Net and will give you the root directory of the project
3. System.AppContext.BaseDirectory and AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory Works fine in .Net but not .Net core and will give you the root directory of the project

In a class library that is supposed to target.Net and .Net core I check which framework is hosting the library and pick one or the other.

Answer 3

1. Application.StartupPathand 7. System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath) - Is only going to work for Windows Forms application

2. System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName( System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)

   Is going to give you something like: "C:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v4.0.30319\\Temporary ASP.NET Files\\legal-services\\e84f415e\\96c98009\\assembly\\dl3\\42aaba80\\bcf9fd83_4b63d101" which is where the page that you are running is.

3. AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory for web application could be useful and will return something like "C:\\hg\\Services\\Services\\Services.Website\\" which is base directory and is quite useful.

4. System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() and 5. Environment.CurrentDirectory

will get you location of where the process got fired from - so for web app running in debug mode from Visual Studio something like "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\IIS Express"

6. System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName( System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase)

will get you location where .dll that is running the code is, for web app that could be "file:\\C:\\hg\\Services\\Services\\Services.Website\\bin"

Now in case of for example console app points 2-6 will be directory where .exe file is.

Hope this saves you some time.