Linux: Relative Links and fopen

Lets just say I'm in /root/, and I want to run the file in /usr/local/bin/blah
The program blah needs the file /usr/local/conf/data, so it uses:

Code:

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fopen("../../conf/data");

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and it fails because it can't find that file. But if the user is in /usr/local/bin and executes blah, it works.

What is the best approach to making it so the file uses relative links from the programs folder, and not the folder the user is in?

Thank yas :)

why not just use the absolute path?
fopen("/usr/local/conf/data");

That's what I'll be doing for this program, but lets say some other program I make I want to be able to install in different directories. How do I know where to get the configuration file?

For example: Apache's HTTPD is installable in any directory, and it still finds its conf files :P

> How do I know where to get the configuration file?
Well if this is meant to be used by any user, you probably want to start by looking in the user's HOME directory.

Try this for finding out where the program exists. From there, you can create a relative path to the programs config

Code:

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

/*
 * Searches in several places for where the program may exist.
 */
void finder ( char *progname ) {
    if ( progname == NULL || *progname == '\0' ) {
        /* you would only get this from people playing games with exec() */
        /* or unusual free-standing implementations, in which case all bets are off */
        fprintf( stderr, "No program name specified\n" );
    } else
    if ( progname[0] == '.' ) {
        /* relative to current dir */
        char buff[PATH_MAX];
        if ( getcwd(buff, sizeof buff) != NULL ) {
            printf( "Rel Path=%s/%s\n", buff, progname );
        } else {
            fprintf( stderr, "Can't getcwd\n" );
        }
    } else
    if ( progname[0] == '/' ) {
        /* absolute path */
        printf( "Abs Path=%s\n", progname );
    } else {
        /* search PATH environment variable */
        char    *env = getenv( "PATH" );
        if ( env != NULL ) {
            char buff[PATH_MAX];
            int  n;
            while ( *env &&
                    sscanf( env, "%[^:]%n", buff, &n ) == 1 ) {
                FILE *fp;
                buff[n] = '\0';
                strcat( buff, "/" );
                strcat( buff, progname );
                if ( (fp=fopen(buff,"r")) != NULL ) {
                    fclose(fp);
                    printf( "Env Path=%s\n", buff );
                    break;
                }
                env += n;
                if ( *env == ':' ) env++;
            }
        } else {
            fprintf( stderr, "Can't getenv\n" );
        }
    }
}

int main ( int argc, char *argv[] ) {
    finder(argv[0]);
    return 0;
}

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