SetCurrentDirecoryA ignored inside VS

[superkemo]

I'm trying to use:

Windows::SetCurrentDirectoryA(string);

To change my working directory but I'm having an odd problem. The directory change works fine executing the program normally but when I try to debug from inside visual studio 2010 the directory change seems to be completely ignored.

Any ideas?

[stober]

You must be doing something else wrong because this works ok with vc++ 2010 Express both with and without the debugger

#include <iostream>
#include <Windows.h>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    char buf[255] = {0};
    GetCurrentDirectory( sizeof(buf), buf);
    cout << buf << '\n';
    SetCurrentDirectory("c:\\dvlp");
    GetCurrentDirectory( sizeof(buf), buf);
    cout << buf << '\n';
        
}

[Skizmo]

...the directory change seems to be completely ignored.

Seems, or are you sure ?

[ovidiucucu]

Beside, what is "Windows"?

[superkemo]

Windows is just a namespace.

#if defined ( WIN32 ) || defined ( WIN64 )
namespace Windows
{
    #define _WIN32_WINNT	0x0400 
    #include <windows.h>
}

Yes, I am sure. Printing path before and after the directory change shows that inside VS the path remains the same, while running the exe from explorer gives the correct result.

[superkemo]

    static pcstr apszLocations[] = { "..\\..\\media\\definitions" };
    SetCurrentDirectoryA( apszLocations[ 0 ] );

char buffer[260];
GetCurrentDirectoryA(260, buffer);
printf("%s\n", buffer);

Directory remains the same when run from inside vs.

Edit: After some messing around I've figured it must be the relative path not working out. However it is strange that it works outside of VS. How should I be doing this the right way?

[ovidiucucu]

When launching from Visual Studio, the initial current directory is not the application one but the project directory unless you have changed it in project settings/properties.
Anyhow is not a good practice to use relative paths because the working directory is not always the application directory. Just think about you try to change it twice.

See this FAQ: http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=312471

Also, anytime a function fails take a look at: http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=318721

[superkemo]

When launching from Visual Studio, the initial current directory is not the application one but the project directory unless you have changed it in project settings/properties.

Yes, I have set this.

Anyhow is not a good practice to use relative paths because the working directory is not always the application directory. Just think about you try to change it twice.

Are you saying to keep a record of the program's installation directory and use absolute paths instead?

Anyway I checked out the link you posted and after retrieving the function return, there is definitely an error with my relative path. Haven't figured out why yet.

Edit: OK, it was a very stupid mistake. I had set the working directory to src/release accidentally instead of bin/release. Fixed it now.

I would still like to hear about why I shouldn't use relative paths.

[ovidiucucu]

I would still like to hear about why I shouldn't use relative paths.

Because

the working directory is not always the application directory