Getting $prefix from Makefile to the C program

[SloppyNick]

I am trying to refer to a program's path from within the program, and I am stuck. I need to open a file which should be in the same directory as the binary, but I am not sure how to get to the directory. As I understand it, open("filename") will only work if that happens to be my current working directory.

I am developing the program using Anjuta, so I am using AutoConf/Make. In the makefiles, they have the "$prefix" variable, which seems like the answer. I just don't know how to compile that into the program.

I hope I have described the problem clearly. Please let me know if any clarification is required. Thanks.

[Franklin52]

You can obtain the directory of your binary from argv[0], for example:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <libgen.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	printf("Dirname : %s\n", dirname(argv[0]));
	return 0;
}

Regards

[SloppyNick]

That only works if the binary is executed directly. If I create a symlink to the binary, and run it, it will give the path to the symlink, not the binary itself.

I found an answer to my question in this thread:
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...e-install.html

So I am just going to add -DDATADIR=\""$(datadir)"\" to my CPPFLAGS, and put the file in the share directory where it belongs anyway.

Thanks for the help.