How to get the current directory in a C program?

I'm making a C program where I need to get the directory that the program is started from. This program is written for UNIX computers. I've been looking at opendir() and telldir(), but telldir() returns a off_t (long int), so it really doesn't help me.

How can I get the current path in a string (char array)?

Have you had a look at getcwd()?

#include <unistd.h>
char *getcwd(char *buf, size_t size);

Simple example:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <limits.h>

int main() {
   char cwd[PATH_MAX];
   if (getcwd(cwd, sizeof(cwd)) != NULL) {
       printf("Current working dir: %s\n", cwd);
   } else {
       perror("getcwd() error");
       return 1;
   }
   return 0;
}

Look up the man page for getcwd.

Although the question is tagged Unix, people also get to visit it when their target platform is Windows, and the answer for Windows is the GetCurrentDirectory() function:

DWORD WINAPI GetCurrentDirectory(
  _In_  DWORD  nBufferLength,
  _Out_ LPTSTR lpBuffer
);

These answers apply to both C and C++ code.

^{Link suggested by user4581301 in a comment to another question, and verified as the current top choice with a Google search 'site:microsoft.com getcurrentdirectory'.}

#include <stdio.h>  /* defines FILENAME_MAX */
//#define WINDOWS  /* uncomment this line to use it for windows.*/
#ifdef WINDOWS
#include <direct.h>
#define GetCurrentDir _getcwd
#else
#include <unistd.h>
#define GetCurrentDir getcwd
#endif
 
int main(){
  char buff[FILENAME_MAX];
  GetCurrentDir( buff, FILENAME_MAX );
  printf("Current working dir: %s\n", buff);
  return 1;
}

Note that getcwd(3) is also available in Microsoft's libc: getcwd(3), and works the same way you'd expect.

Must link with -loldnames (oldnames.lib, which is done automatically in most cases), or use _getcwd(). The unprefixed version is unavailable under Windows RT.

To get current directory (where you execute your target program), you can use the following example code, which works for both Visual Studio and Linux/MacOS(gcc/clang), both C and C++:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

#if defined(_MSC_VER)
#include <direct.h>
#define getcwd _getcwd
#elif defined(__GNUC__)
#include <unistd.h>
#endif

int main() {
    char* buffer;

    if( (buffer=getcwd(NULL, 0)) == NULL) {
        perror("failed to get current directory\n");
    } else {
        printf("%s \nLength: %zu\n", buffer, strlen(buffer));
        free(buffer);
    }

    return 0;
}

Use getcwd

#include <stdio.h>  /* defines FILENAME_MAX */
//#define WINDOWS  /* uncomment this line to use it for windows.*/
#ifdef WINDOWS
#include <direct.h>
#define GetCurrentDir _getcwd
#else
#include <unistd.h>
#define GetCurrentDir getcwd
#endif

int main(){
  char buff[FILENAME_MAX];
  GetCurrentDir( buff, FILENAME_MAX );
  printf("Current working dir: %s\n", buff);
  return 1;
}

OR

#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h> 
#include<stdlib.h>

main() {
char *buf;
buf=(char *)malloc(100*sizeof(char));
getcwd(buf,100);
printf("\n %s \n",buf);
}