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Changing the Current Directory

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The directory at the end of the active path is called the current directory; it is the directory in which the active application started, unless it has been explicitly changed. An application can determine which directory is current by calling the GetCurrentDirectory function. It is sometimes necessary to use the GetFullPathName function to ensure the drive letter is included if the application requires it.

Note

Although each process can have only one current directory, if the application switches volumes by using the SetCurrentDirectory function, the system remembers the last current path for each volume (drive letter). This behavior will manifest itself only when specifying a drive letter without a fully qualified path when changing the current directory point of reference to a different volume. This applies to either Get or Set operations.

 

An application can change the current directory by calling the SetCurrentDirectory function.

The following example demonstrates the use of GetCurrentDirectory and SetCurrentDirectory.

#include <windows.h> 
#include <stdio.h>
#include <tchar.h>

#define BUFSIZE MAX_PATH
 
void _tmain(int argc, TCHAR **argv) 
{ 
   TCHAR Buffer[BUFSIZE];
   DWORD dwRet;

   if(argc != 2)
   {
      _tprintf(TEXT("Usage: %s <dir>\n"), argv[0]);
      return;
   }

   dwRet = GetCurrentDirectory(BUFSIZE, Buffer);

   if( dwRet == 0 )
   {
      printf("GetCurrentDirectory failed (%d)\n", GetLastError());
      return;
   }
   if(dwRet > BUFSIZE)
   {
      printf("Buffer too small; need %d characters\n", dwRet);
      return;
   }

   if( !SetCurrentDirectory(argv[1]))
   {
      printf("SetCurrentDirectory failed (%d)\n", GetLastError());
      return;
   }
   _tprintf(TEXT("Set current directory to %s\n"), argv[1]);

   if( !SetCurrentDirectory(Buffer) )
   {
      printf("SetCurrentDirectory failed (%d)\n", GetLastError());
      return;
   }
   _tprintf(TEXT("Restored previous directory (%s)\n"), Buffer);
}