How do I find out the current directory of my EXE on Windows

Question

How do I find out the current directory of my EXE on Windows `File absolutePath` returns the working directory which I could change in a symlink ```Server class getProtectionDomain getCodeSource getLocation getPath ``` results in NullPointer if started from the EXE Is there something compose specific to find that out

Tomasz Krakowiak · Answer

Not sure why you re looking for something compose specific Maybe natvie specific And if you want to support it for JVM than do you mean to find java exe path

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

I was thinking that maybe Jetbrains has made a nice API for that I m not aware of The pure Java ways are somewhat hacky and some of them don t work from that EXE I meant Compose for Desktop specific

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

Think of the very nice way they implemented to detect if the dark mode is active You can do this on yourself but sometimes Compose for Desktop already has a nice util for stuff like that ready to use wink

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

```val path = Thread currentThread contextClassLoader getResource icon ico val jarPath = path path substring 6 path path length 10 val pathToDir = File jarPath parentFile parentFile canonicalPath replace 20 ``` Not nice but seems to work

ephemient · Answer

a more reliable way to get the JAR file from a resource URL would be ```File path openConnection as JarURLConnection jarFileURL toURI ```

ephemient · Answer

and a more reliable way to get the JAR file containing a class in general would be ```java io File this class java protectionDomain codeSource location toURI ```

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

No that does not work codesource is NULL executed in the EXE

ephemient · Answer

which class are you using for that it will be null if it s a system class but if it s one of your own I would expect it to work unless something unusual is going on with the packaging

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

I improved my solution a bit ```val url = Thread currentThread contextClassLoader getResource icon ico val jarPath = url path substring 0 url path length 10 val pathToExe = Paths get URI jarPath resolve MyApp exe toFile canonicalPath```

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

Oh well Yes I used a system class I wasn t aware that this will make a difference sweat smile

ephemient · Answer

it makes a huge difference it comes from the parent classloader after all in any case I would consider `File toURI ` to be far more reliable than ` replace 20 `

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

Yes you are right Even URLDecoder decode is better than that

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

I ended up with this and tested it even for UNC paths ```val url = Thread currentThread contextClassLoader getResource icon ico val jarPath = url path substring 0 url path length 10 val pathToExe = Paths get URI jarPath resolve MyApp exe toFile canonicalPath <http Log info|Log info> App location $pathToExe ```

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

Other solutions may work well too but I think this is good enough I can change the working dir in a link and it still finds the correct place of the EXE file Is there any case where this code could break thinking face

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

I would really love JetBrains to provide a variable with the path to the EXE and I think based on the Gradle native distribution configuration they could provide it All they need is the name of the EXE which is configured and unless the user actively changes it I see no reason why this can fail

Stefan Oltmann · Answer

But if the user starts to rename files in my distribution a lot of other things should fail as well smile