How to get current directory using C language on Windows?

Question

Can anyone tell me how to get the path of the current working directory on Windows?

Answer 1

The Windows API function GetCurrentDirectory will give you the current directory for the current process.

Alternatively, you may want to use the function getcwd or _getcwd, especially if you seek compatibility with POSIX platforms such as Linux.

Here is an example for using the function GetCurrentDirectory:

#include <windows.h>

int main( void )
{
    TCHAR tszBuffer[MAX_PATH];
    DWORD dwRet;

    dwRet = GetCurrentDirectory( MAX_PATH, tszBuffer );
    if ( dwRet == 0 )
    {
        //TODO: handle error
    }

    // The buffer now contains the path of the
    // current directory and can be inspected.
}

MAX_PATH is defined when you #include <windows.h>.

TCHAR is just a typedef for char if you are compiling in ASCII mode, or for a wide-character WCHAR if you are compiling in UNICODE mode. DWORD is just a typedef for an unsigned long. These typedefs are declared when you #include <windows.h>.

Here is an example for using the function getcwd:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <direct.h>

// Microsoft wants us to use _getcwd instead of getcwd, which breaks POSIX
// compatibility. See the following link for more information:
// https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7582394/strdup-or-strdup
// Therefore we must disable the compiler warning if we want to use getcwd
// to maintain POSIX compatibility. This is accomplished with the following
// line.
#pragma warning(disable : 4996)

// We can't use the constant MAX_PATH in this program because it is not
// defined. This is because we have not included windows.h. Since MAX_PATH
// has the value 260, we will use that value.
#define BUF_SIZE 260

int main()
{
    char buffer[BUF_SIZE];
    char *p;

    p = getcwd( buffer, BUF_SIZE );
    if ( p == NULL )
    {
        //TODO: handle error
    }

    printf( "The current directory is: %s", buffer );
}

In contrast to the function GetCurrentDirectory, the functions getcwd and _getcwd allow you to pass NULL as the buffer parameter. In that case, it will allocate the memory for you with malloc and return a pointer to that memory buffer. Therefore, you must call free when you are finished with the buffer, to prevent a memory leak. Here is an example:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <direct.h>

// Microsoft wants us to use _getcwd instead of getcwd, which breaks POSIX
// compatibility. See the following link for more information:
// https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7582394/strdup-or-strdup
// Therefore we must disable the compiler warning if we want to use getcwd
// to maintain POSIX compatibility. This is accomplished with the following
// line.
#pragma warning(disable : 4996)

int main()
{
    char *p;

    p = getcwd( NULL, 0 );
    if ( p == NULL )
    {
        //TODO: handle error
    }

    printf( "The current directory is: %s", p );

    free( p );
}