Get current working directory in a Qt application

Question

I'm writing a program in C++ using the Qt library. There is a symbolic link in my home bin directory to the executable. I would like the current working directory of my program to be the directory in which I am with my terminal (ie. the result of the pwd command). I saw the QDir::currentPath() function, but it gives back the directory where the binary is.

How can I find my current working directory?

Yes : `QDir dir; Cout << dir.absolutePath() << flush;` gives me the directory where the executable lives. — Geoffroy, Sep 14 '11 at 08:47
Both QDir::currentPath() and dir.absolutePath() return the current directory of the command line. — Flint, Sep 13 '13 at 16:20

score 118 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 29 '16 at 13:26

118

Just tested and QDir::currentPath() does return the path from which I called my executable.

And a symlink does not "exist". If you are executing an exe from that path you are effectively executing it from the path the symlink points to.

edited Jan 29 '16 at 13:26

Toby Speight

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answered Sep 13 '11 at 13:55

RedX

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score 66 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 25 '15 at 08:51

66

Have you tried QCoreApplication::applicationDirPath()

qDebug() << "App path : " << qApp->applicationDirPath();

edited Nov 25 '15 at 08:51

AntonyG

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answered Sep 13 '11 at 17:14

KaZ

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If I read the documentation, this gives the dir where the executable is. But I wanted the dir from which the executable is called. – Geoffroy Sep 14 '11 at 08:43
3

This will generally work, but not everyone is going to use a QCoreApplication. E.g., my QTest won't let me use that. – kayleeFrye_onDeck Jan 05 '17 at 01:38
The problem with using applicationDirPath is on different operating systems the returned path can be different, on a Mac the application is packaged in a file.app file and when calling appliciationDirPath you get the file location and the folders packaged in file.app – SPlatten Dec 02 '20 at 13:32

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 20 '15 at 18:49

To add on to KaZ answer, Whenever I am making a QML application I tend to add this to the main c++

#include <QGuiApplication>
#include <QQmlApplicationEngine>
#include <QStandardPaths>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QGuiApplication app(argc, argv);
QQmlApplicationEngine engine;

// get the applications dir path and expose it to QML 

QUrl appPath(QString("%1").arg(app.applicationDirPath()));
engine.rootContext()->setContextProperty("appPath", appPath);


// Get the QStandardPaths home location and expose it to QML 
QUrl userPath;
   const QStringList usersLocation = QStandardPaths::standardLocations(QStandardPaths::HomeLocation);
   if (usersLocation.isEmpty())
       userPath = appPath.resolved(QUrl("/home/"));
   else
      userPath = QString("%1").arg(usersLocation.first());
   engine.rootContext()->setContextProperty("userPath", userPath);

   QUrl imagePath;
      const QStringList picturesLocation = QStandardPaths::standardLocations(QStandardPaths::PicturesLocation);
      if (picturesLocation.isEmpty())
          imagePath = appPath.resolved(QUrl("images"));
      else
          imagePath = QString("%1").arg(picturesLocation.first());
      engine.rootContext()->setContextProperty("imagePath", imagePath);

      QUrl videoPath;
      const QStringList moviesLocation = QStandardPaths::standardLocations(QStandardPaths::MoviesLocation);
      if (moviesLocation.isEmpty())
          videoPath = appPath.resolved(QUrl("./"));
      else
          videoPath = QString("%1").arg(moviesLocation.first());
      engine.rootContext()->setContextProperty("videoPath", videoPath);

      QUrl homePath;
      const QStringList homesLocation = QStandardPaths::standardLocations(QStandardPaths::HomeLocation);
      if (homesLocation.isEmpty())
          homePath = appPath.resolved(QUrl("/"));
      else
          homePath = QString("%1").arg(homesLocation.first());
      engine.rootContext()->setContextProperty("homePath", homePath);

      QUrl desktopPath;
      const QStringList desktopsLocation = QStandardPaths::standardLocations(QStandardPaths::DesktopLocation);
      if (desktopsLocation.isEmpty())
          desktopPath = appPath.resolved(QUrl("/"));
      else
          desktopPath = QString("%1").arg(desktopsLocation.first());
      engine.rootContext()->setContextProperty("desktopPath", desktopPath);

      QUrl docPath;
      const QStringList docsLocation = QStandardPaths::standardLocations(QStandardPaths::DocumentsLocation);
      if (docsLocation.isEmpty())
          docPath = appPath.resolved(QUrl("/"));
      else
          docPath = QString("%1").arg(docsLocation.first());
      engine.rootContext()->setContextProperty("docPath", docPath);


      QUrl tempPath;
      const QStringList tempsLocation = QStandardPaths::standardLocations(QStandardPaths::TempLocation);
      if (tempsLocation.isEmpty())
          tempPath = appPath.resolved(QUrl("/"));
      else
          tempPath = QString("%1").arg(tempsLocation.first());
      engine.rootContext()->setContextProperty("tempPath", tempPath);
engine.load(QUrl(QStringLiteral("qrc:/main.qml")));
return app.exec();
}

Using it in QML

....
........
............
Text{
text:"This is the applications path: " + appPath
+ "\nThis is the users home directory: " + homePath
+ "\nThis is the Desktop path: " desktopPath;
}

There is now a StandardPaths QML module: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qml-qt-labs-platform-standardpaths.html — Jean-Michaël Celerier, May 14 '17 at 10:36

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 14 '15 at 20:42

I'm running Qt 5.5 under Windows and the default constructor of QDir appears to pick up the current working directory, not the application directory.

I'm not sure if the getenv PWD will work cross-platform and I think it is set to the current working directory when the shell launched the application and doesn't include any working directory changes done by the app itself (which might be why the OP is seeing this behavior).

So I thought I'd add some other ways that should give you the current working directory (not the application's binary location):

// using where a relative filename will end up
QFileInfo fi("temp");
cout << fi.absolutePath() << endl;

// explicitly using the relative name of the current working directory
QDir dir(".");
cout << dir.absolutePath() << endl;

Thank-you Mark, but I've tested both your solutions with Qt5.3.2 under linux, and both give the binary location... — Geoffroy, Aug 17 '15 at 18:08

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 14 '11 at 08:40

4

Thank you RedX and Kaz for your answers. I don't get why by me it gives the path of the exe. I found an other way to do it :

QString pwd("");
char * PWD;
PWD = getenv ("PWD");
pwd.append(PWD);
cout << "Working directory : " << pwd << flush;

It is less elegant than a single line... but it works for me.

answered Sep 14 '11 at 08:40

Geoffroy

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I got it too with QFileInfo(".").absolutePath() – crgarridos May 20 '16 at 15:48

Get current working directory in a Qt application

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