Reputation: 10665

How to get the application executable name in WindowsC++/CLI?

I need to change the functionality of an application based on the executable name. Nothing huge, just changing strings that are displayed and some internal identifiers. The application is written in a mixture of native and .Net C++-CLI code.

Two ways that I have looked at are to parse the GetCommandLine() function in Win32 and stuffing around with the AppDomain and other things in .Net. However using GetCommandLine won't always work as when run from the debugger the command line is empty. And the .Net AppDomain stuff seems to require a lot of stuffing around.

So what is the nicest/simplest/most efficient way of determining the executable name in C++/CLI? (I'm kind of hoping that I've just missed something simple that is available in .Net.)

Edit: One thing that I should mention is that this is a Windows GUI application using C++/CLI, therefore there's no access to the traditional C style main function, it uses the Windows WinMain() function.

Upvotes: 22

Answers (8)

Jamie

Reputation: 1932

I guess I like to make it a habit to add answers to really old questions. Let's do it again!

The very simplest way to get the current running .exe on a Windows system is to use the SDK defined global variable _pgmptr. However, it's considered "unsafe", so you use _get_pgmptr() instead.

So...

char *exe;
_get_pgmptr(&exe);
std::cout << "This executable is [" << exe << "]." << std::endl;

If you have a "wide" (UTF16) entrypoint, such as wmain or wWinMain, use this instead:

wchar_t* wexe;
_get_wpgmptr(&wexe);
std::wcout << L"This executable is [" << wexe << L"]." << std::endl;

If you really, really insist on using the simpler version, here's how to do it:

#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS 1
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    std::cout << "This executable is [" << _pgmptr << "]." << std::endl;
}

Just don't get yourself pwned by hax0rs! 🤣

Upvotes: 0

Ferruccio

Reputation: 100748

Call GetModuleFileName() using 0 as a module handle.

Note: you can also use the argv[0] parameter to main or call GetCommandLine() if there is no main. However, keep in mind that these methods will not necessarily give you the complete path to the executable file. They will give back the same string of characters that was used to start the program. Calling GetModuleFileName(), instead, will always give you a complete path and file name.

Upvotes: 43

Serge Rogatch

Reputation: 15100

According to MSDN:

The global variable _pgmptr is automatically initialized to the full path of the executable file, and can be used to retrieve the full path name of an executable file.

Upvotes: 0

ingconti

Reputation: 11666

I can confirm it works under win64/visual studio 2017/ MFC

TCHAR szFileName[MAX_PATH + 1];
GetModuleFileName(NULL, szFileName, MAX_PATH + 1);
auto exe = CString(szFileName);

exe contains full path to exe.

Upvotes: 1

Joseph

Reputation:

Use the argv argument to main:

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    printf("%s\n", argv[0]);  //argv[0] will contain the name of the app.
    return 0;
}

You may need to scan the string to remove directory information and/or extensions, but the name will be there.

Upvotes: 8

Adam Pierce

Reputation: 34375

Ferruccio's answer is good. Here's some example code:

TCHAR exepath[MAX_PATH+1];

if(0 == GetModuleFileName(0, exepath, MAX_PATH+1))
    MessageBox(_T("Error!"));

MessageBox(exepath, _T("My executable name"));

Upvotes: 16