setting the working dir

[Carver413]

I would like my program to use is current dir as a starting place for file operations but when I call GetCurrentDir I get the desktop as the current dir.
Is there a way to set it in lazarus ?

[mas steindorff]

modify the desk top's shortcut "working directory" to be the same as your program

[Carver413]

this isn't exactly what I was looking for.In delphi it was possible to retrieve the programs directory from a function (don't remember what that was) but it did not require messing with a shortcut.

[IndianaJones]

I think you are looking for this, ExtractFilePath(Application.ExeName);
Thanks.

[Carver413]

Thank you

[marcov]

Note that this functionality is not crossplatform.

(or even 100% compatible under windows, it doesn't work when your .exe is in zip folders, compressed with some forms of UPX, on some networkdrives etc)

[Blaazen]

Yes, I can confirm that Application.Exename does NOT work after UPX compression on Linux.

[BioHazard]

This for functions from SysUtils unit might help you:

GetAppConfigDir
GetAppConfigFile
GetCurrentDir
GetUserDir

I use them four and they work on windows and linux.

They all are documented for example below just search function name in function reference:

http://lazarus-ccr.sourceforge.net/docs/rtl/sysutils/index-5.html

As in (still depending on your goal) modern application's data is stored per user - You can use GetAppConfigDir(False) - With False parameter it returns local config dir in users directory, with True global config dir and as in windows  'global config dir' is undefined thing - use it with False.