Why is nhibernate looking in /bin/debug for the hibernate.cfg.xml?

Question

Hi,

I have a class library with all my nhibernate code (domain/mappings using fluent).

Now I am just doing some simple tests in a console application, and I am getting an error saying it can't find the configruation file in /bin/debug

I have the file in /consoleTests/hibernate.cfg.xml

Why would it be looking in the /bin/debug folder of the console application?

Answer 1

That's the current directory when running in Visual Studio. Is that what you're doing?

Answer 2

If you are calling the Configure() method without any parameters, then I believe that the hibernate.cfg.xml must be in the same directory as the application that uses it.

When you compile your project, it gets compiled to the bin/debug/ directory. When you run your project (by either clicking on it or debugging it in Visual Studio), the working directory is bin/debug/, so that is where the hibernate.cfg.xml file is expected to be.

You could:

• use a post-build event within Visual Studio to copy the hibernate.cfg.xml file to the output directory
• call Configure(path), where path is the path to your hibernate.cfg.xml in your /consoleTests/ directory.

Have a look at "A fluent interface to NHibernate - Part 4 - Configuration" for more detailed information on how to configure NHibernate.