SetCurrentDirectory function

Changes the current directory for the current process.

Syntax

BOOL WINAPI SetCurrentDirectory(
  _In_  LPCTSTR lpPathName
);

Parameters

lpPathName [in]

The path to the new current directory. This parameter may specify a relative path or a full path. In either case, the full path of the specified directory is calculated and stored as the current directory. For more information, see File Names, Paths, and Namespaces.

The string must not exceed MAX_PATH characters, including the terminating null character. The final character before the null character must be a backslash ('\'). If you do not specify the backslash, it will be added for you; therefore, specify MAX_PATH-2 characters for the path unless you include the trailing backslash, in which case, specify MAX_PATH-1 characters for the path.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.

If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

Each process has a single current directory made up of two parts:

• A disk designator that is either a drive letter followed by a colon, or a server name and share name (\\servername\sharename)
• A directory on the disk designator

Multithreaded applications and shared library code should not use the SetCurrentDirectory function and should avoid using relative path names. The current directory state written by the SetCurrentDirectory function is stored as a global variable in each process, therefore multithreaded applications cannot reliably use this value without possible data corruption from other threads that may also be reading or setting this value. This limitation also applies to the GetCurrentDirectory and GetFullPathName functions. The exception being when the application is guaranteed to be running in a single thread, for example parsing file names from the command line argument string in the main thread prior to creating any additional threads. Using relative path names in multithreaded applications or shared library code can yield unpredictable results and is not supported.

In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, this function is supported by the following technologies.

Examples

For an example, see Changing the Current Directory.

Requirements

See also

Directory Management Functions

GetCurrentDirectory

GetFullPathName

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Build date: 4/16/2013