How do I find the location of the executable in C?

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Finding current executable's path without /proc/self/exe 12 answers

Is there a way in C/C++ to find the location (full path) of the current executed program?

(The problem with argv[0] is that it does not give the full path.)

Answer 1

Remember that on Unix systems the binary may have been removed since it was started. It's perfectly legal and safe on Unix. Last I checked Windows will not allow you to remove a running binary.

/proc/self/exe will still be readable, but it will not be a working symlink really. It will be... odd.

Answer 2

I would

1) Use the basename() function: http://linux.die.net/man/3/basename
2) chdir() to that directory
3) Use getpwd() to get the current directory

That way you'll get the directory in a neat, full form, instead of ./ or ../bin/.

Maybe you'll want to save and restore the current directory, if that is important for your program.

Answer 3

Use GetModuleFileName() function if you are using Windows.