CsvFile.Load doesn't use current directory from system.environment

[ovatsus]

I can do this:

open System.IO
System.Environment.CurrentDirectory <- __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__
File.ReadAllLines("filename")

and it picks up SOURCE_DIRECTORY\filename

but if I do this:

CsvFile.Load "filename"

It will try to load C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\4.1\Framework\v4.0\filename

[awseward]

Hi! I'd like to help out with this, but I'm wondering if I can ask a question or two first..

I might be mistaken, but it looks like it's here that AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory gets selected in runtime.
https://github.com/fsharp/FSharp.Data/blob/1ac5f39e7297ef386e39d68f6f73859c25867fae/src/CommonRuntime/IO.fs#L52-L57

I wonder how much code, if any, exists which relies on that behavior?

It also mentions in a comment that this base directory selection is based on standard type provider rules established here: fsprojects/FSharpx.Extras#195 (comment).

Like I said I'd love to help out, but I'm not sure how to proceed with those concerns, or if they're even valid.

Any thoughts?

[ovatsus]

I think the issue is that CsvFile.Load and CsvFile.Save don't go throu that piece of code like the type providers

[peterzeller]

Wouldn't it be sufficient to change AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory to Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()?

I also ran into this problem when starting my app with dotnet run and using relative paths there.

[github-actions]

🤖 This is an automated response from Repo Assist.

The behaviour here is by design: CsvFile.Load(string) resolves relative paths against AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory at runtime, which in older F# Interactive was the F# SDK directory (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\...).

The easiest workaround is to build an absolute path using __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__ in scripts:

let data = CsvFile.Load(System.IO.Path.Combine(__SOURCE_DIRECTORY__, "filename"))

Or for compiled apps, use System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location or AppContext.BaseDirectory as the base.

Note: the type providers (CsvProvider<"filename">) handle this differently — they use design-time path resolution via the ResolutionFolder static parameter, and at runtime they use a defaultResolutionFolder value embedded at compile time. That's why CsvProvider<"data.csv"> works from a script while CsvFile.Load("data.csv") may not.

If you want CsvFile.Load to respect a user-specified resolution folder, a future enhancement could add an optional resolutionFolder parameter (similar to the type provider static parameter). Feel free to open a new enhancement issue for this if it would be useful.

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