I am reading a file that is located in the same directory as my executable using a StreamReader with the following method:
StreamReader reader=new StreamReader(".\\file.txt"); //NOTE: 2nd backslash is escape character in C#
When I do this in the debug environment, it reads the file fine, but when I install the service it tries to read the file in C:\Windows\System32\ as if the working directory is set to that path, but in the services properties there is no working directory option. I'm guessing it's using the working dir of sc.exe.
Is there a way I can get it to resolve to the location of the current executable using relative file paths? Because the service might be placed in different locations based on deployments.
Yes, working directory of a service is %WinDir%\System32.Also GetModuleFileName() will return incorrect result because your service is hosted by another executable (by chance placed in that directory too).
You have to find executing assembly and its location, longer to describe than to do:
string assemblyPath = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
Now just extract directory name and combine with file you want:
string path = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(assemblyPath), "file.txt");
Related
I have some Selenium C# tests hosted on Azure which they need to look for the pre-built excel file in project tree, stored inside bin folder, to execute some file upload validation scenarios.
When they are executed locally these scenarios pass without any problem, but when it comes to be executed on the Azure they receive the following error.
invalid argument: File not found : D:\a\r1\a_Selenium_Tests\TestApplication\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\Files\SC003_CT014_ActiveEmployees.xlsx
The files do exists in the following path: ...\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\Files...
And the code I use to them is:
string root = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + "\\Files\\" + file;
Do you know if there's a missing file configuration or building the filePath in another way?
Thanks for your help :D
Directory.GetCurrentDirection() returns the current working directory, not the folder in which the DLL file resides. The current working directory is a different thing. In your case, the current working directory is probably something like D:\a\r1\. Instead, you need to get the folder in which the test assembly resides:
var binDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(GetType().Assembly.Location);
// ^^^^^^^^^
var excelFilePath = Path.Combine(binDirectory, "Files", "SC003_CT014_ActiveEmployees.xlsx");
Note: Replace GetType() with typeof(ClassName) if you are executing your code from a static method, or you would like to specify a path to a different assembly than the one that is currently executing.
I want to include an XML file in the bin directory of my web application/web service. I've included the bin folder in my project in Visual Studio and added the file. I set its Build Action to "Content" and Copy to Output Directory to "Copy Always". When my code goes to find it, I use
string dir = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
if (!dir.EndsWith(#"\")) dir += #"\";
to get the directory and return it as appPath, where appPath is (unescaped version):
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\vs\0c7655f\d4908928\assembly\dl3\5cf9fd67\fdc52284_ffa7d201\
then I append the file name of my XML file (where string filename = "myXmlFile.xml") to read it:
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(appPath + filename);
But I get an exception on that line of code, that it could not find my file. I am handling for escaping of the slashes fine, so it is not that. When I checked the physical directory that the path points to, it was not copied to that directory, and that is the cause of the exception. So how do I get my file to get copied there?
How about using HostingEnvironment.ApplicationPhysicalPath
var dir = Path.Combine(HostingEnvironment.ApplicationPhysicalPath, "bin\\filename.xml")
See related question how to get the application path in asp.net?.
I want to be able to set default folder and file creating inside of the folder where the app is installed? Because this app will be used on multiple machines so I cannot specify path like C://Users/PcName/etc.. Is there any very simple way of doing it?
What you are trying to do is not advisable; if your application is installed using recommended default methods (following Microsoft guidelines) the app will be in a directory under C:\Program Files (or where the program files folder may be redirected) and the user that runs the app will not have write access to that directory, so the directory creation will fail.
That said, you cannot use the Environment.CurrentDirectory, because it may or may not be the directory where your application's executable files reside, neither CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, because that is not significative too (documentation says it's the directory where the loader will search for assemblies, but that may or may not be the directory of your application's executable files).
Copying from this other answer, the correct way to find the directory of your assembly is
public static string AssemblyDirectory
{
get
{
string codeBase = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase;
UriBuilder uri = new UriBuilder(codeBase);
string path = Uri.UnescapeDataString(uri.Path);
return Path.GetDirectoryName(path);
}
}
Once you have the path, you can try to create the directory with System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory() and a file with System.IO.File.WriteAllText() or its siblings, or any other standard method of creating files.
You may also want to use the newer Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location property, and use Path.GetDirectoryName() on that.
This applies to both web and windows apps:
Environment.CurrentDirectory = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
You can get the path for the executable using this code (most of the time, actually it returns the current working directory)
System.Environment.CurrentDirectory
If you only specify a path that doesn't start with a drive letter then the path will be relative to where the application is running. e.g. The following program will create a folder and file in the application's local folder.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var installedLocation = Directory.GetParent(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
var di = installedLocation.CreateSubdirectory("MyFolder");
File.WriteAllText(Path.Combine(di.FullName, "File.txt"), "This will be written to the file");
var installedPath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
var di2 = Directory.CreateDirectory(Path.Combine(installedPath, "MyFolder2"));
File.WriteAllText(Path.Combine(di.FullName, "File2.txt"), "This will be written to the file");
}
}
I tried many ways to access a text file in my Visual Studio 2012 Solution from a folder named TextFiles
using (System.IO.StreamWriter file = new System.IO.StreamWriter(#"~/TextFiles/ActiveUsers.txt", true))
{
file.WriteLine(model.UserName.ToString());
}
But it kept on throwing the error
Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS
Express\~\TextFiles\ActiveUsers.txt'.
Not sure where I made a mistake
You need to use HttpServerUtility.MapPath which will turn the ~/ portion of the path in to the real location it resildes on your hard drive.
So that would change your code to (assuming you are in one of the IIS classes that expose a Server property to it's methods)
var path = Server.MapPath(#"~/TextFiles/ActiveUsers.txt");
using (System.IO.StreamWriter file = new System.IO.StreamWriter(path, true))
{
file.WriteLine(model.UserName.ToString());
}
I ran into a similar issue and ended up using
string sFileName = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(#"~/dirname/readme.txt");
This is an old question but I just ran into this problem myself and wanted to add what I've just discovered, in case it's helpful to anyone else.
If you have UAC turned off but are not running with elevated permissions, and try to write to restricted files (e.g. the "Program Files" folder) you'll get the "could not find a part of the path" error, instead of the (correct) access denied error.
To eliminate the problem, run with elevated permissions as in this solution: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1885543/3838199
~ is not the "user home" or anything else in Windows. You can still set the path as relative to the working directory (where the executable is) by just not specifying a full path.
For .netcore 3.x
You should make use of IWebHostEnvironment using dependency injection.
You can then use it in your code this way
string wwwRootPath = _hostEnvironment.WebRootPath;
string path = Path.Combine(wwwRootPath, $"TextFiles{Path.PathSeparator}ActiveUsers.txt");
Ensure to use PathSeparator otherwise you might face the same error due to the variance in your hosting environment.
I am running my C# application from "D:\App\program.cs". My application needs to execute a file placed in "C:\Program Files\software\abc.exe".
How can I set the relative path in my program to execute the "abc.exe"?
To answer the question how to get a path that shows the relative location of pathB from pathA. You can use the Uri class to get the relative path.
string pathA = #"C:\App\program.cs";
string pathB = #"C:\program files\software\abc.exe";
System.Uri uriA = new Uri(pathA);
System.Uri uriB = new Uri(pathB);
Uri relativeUri = uriA.MakeRelativeUri(uriB);
string relativeToA = relativeUri.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(relativeToA);
This yields "../program%20files/software/abc.exe" for the relative path.
I have changed your example from D to C though because you can't have a relative path for two locations on different drive letters, although the above code still works, just yields the absolute.
OR if the c# bit is a red herring, and as I now understand you want to run a batch file:
in batch file put:
cd c:\program files\software\
abc.exe
abc.exe will then execute from software folder and not folder of the batch file.
You shouldn't be using relative path for referring something from Program Files. I would recommend to use Environment.GetFolderPath (and Environment.SpecialFolder) to get path to Program Files and then use some config setting to get reminder path to the program.
It's not clear what you mean by "set relative path", but if you're using Process and ProcessStartInfo to run the executable, I would suggest that you use an absolute path to specify the executable, and ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory to tell the process where to run (so that relative paths will be evaluated appropriately within the new process).
EDIT: If you want the batch file to run c:\Program Files\Software\abc.exe then the contents of the batch file should be just:
"c:\Program Files\Software\abc.exe"
(Note the quotes to allow for space.)
I don't see what this has got to do with relative pathnames though.
If the application is in Program Files then you can create a batch file like
"%ProgramFiles%\software\abc.exe"