stat() doesn't find a file in c++ - c++

Question

on Linux 12.04
I have an executable file located in say:
/a/b/exe
and a config file on
/a/b/config
when doing:
cd /a/b/
./exe
everything's ok and the stat function finds the file config on /a/b/
HOWEVER,when running from root
/a/b/exe
the stat doesn't find the config file
any idea why?
it makes it impossible to run the binary using a script that isn't ran from the folder of the exe.
Edit
The call looks like this:
struct stat stFileInfo;
bool blnReturn;
int intStat;
// Attempt to get the file attributes
intStat = stat(strFilename.c_str(),&stFileInfo);
if(intStat == 0) {
// We were able to get the file attributes
// so the file obviously exists.
blnReturn = true;
} else {
// We were not able to get the file attributes.
// This may mean that we don't have permission to
// access the folder which contains this file. If you
// need to do that level of checking, lookup the
// return values of stat which will give you
// more details on why stat failed.
blnReturn = false;
}

Answer 1

In first case cd ..., run exe you change current working directory before executing the program, in second case you launch exe without changing current working directory, and I think in your program you use a relative path to open your config(for example ./config or just config) and it can't find it from current working directory. easiest workaround is to change working directory at start of your app:
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
std::string s( argv[0] ); // path to the program
std::string::size_type n = s.rfind( '/' );
if( n != std::string::npos ) {
std::system( ("cd " + s.substr(0, n)).c_str() );
}
// rest of your code
}