How do you get the current project directory from C# code when creating a custom MSBuild task?

Question

using System;
using System.IO;

// This will get the current WORKING directory (i.e. \bin\Debug)
string workingDirectory = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
// or: Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() gives the same result

// This will get the current PROJECT bin directory (ie ../bin/)
string projectDirectory = Directory.GetParent(workingDirectory).Parent.FullName;

// This will get the current PROJECT directory
string projectDirectory = Directory.GetParent(workingDirectory).Parent.Parent.FullName;

You can try one of this two methods.

string startupPath = System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();

string startupPath = Environment.CurrentDirectory;

Tell me, which one seems to you better

If a project is running on an IIS express, the Environment.CurrentDirectory could point to where IIS Express is located ( the default path would be C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express ), not to where your project resides.

---

This is probably the most suitable directory path for various kinds of projects.

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory

This is the MSDN definition.

Gets the base directory that the assembly resolver uses to probe for assemblies.

This will also give you the project directory by navigating two levels up from the current executing directory (this won't return the project directory for every build, but this is the most common).

System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(@"..\..\")

Of course you would want to contain this inside some sort of validation/error handling logic.

If you want ot know what is the directory where your solution is located, you need to do this:

 var parent = Directory.GetParent(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()).Parent;
            if (parent != null)
            {
                var directoryInfo = parent.Parent;
                string startDirectory = null;
                if (directoryInfo != null)
                {
                    startDirectory = directoryInfo.FullName;
                }
                if (startDirectory != null)
                { /*Do whatever you want "startDirectory" variable*/}
            }

If you let only with GetCurrrentDirectory() method, you get the build folder no matter if you are debugging or releasing. I hope this help! If you forget about validations it would be like this:

var startDirectory = Directory.GetParent(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()).Parent.Parent.FullName;