We are currently migrating Bugzilla to GitHub issues.
Any changes made to the bug tracker now will be lost, so please do not post new bugs or make changes to them.
When we're done, all bug URLs will redirect to their equivalent location on the new bug tracker.

This bug report is about the Windows-implementation of the GetBasePath-function which can be found in "src/filesystem/windows/SDL_sysfilesystem.c". The implementation is incorrect and non-portable, mainly due to a wrong usage (and linkage) of the GetModuleFileName-function (Win32 API). Another issue, albeit less important, is the hardcoded limit to the path's length which could very well exceed MAX_PATH. Eventhough I strongly discourage anyone from using this function, I have flagged the bug severity as "minor" as the GetBasePath-function isn't being used by SDL internally - it is however exported and declared in the public API headers.

As stated by MSDN (link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms683198(v=vs.85).aspx):

[----------[ BEGIN_QUOTE ]----------]
Starting with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Psapi.h establishes version numbers for the PSAPI functions. The PSAPI version number affects the name used to call the function and the library that a program must load. If PSAPI_VERSION is 2 or greater, this function is defined as K32GetModuleFileNameEx in Psapi.h and exported in Kernel32.lib and Kernel32.dll. If PSAPI_VERSION is 1, this function is defined as GetModuleFileNameEx in Psapi.h and exported in Psapi.lib and Psapi.dll as a wrapper that calls K32GetModuleFileNameEx.
**********
Programs that must run on earlier versions of Windows as well as Windows 7 and later versions should always call this function as GetModuleFileNameEx. To ensure correct resolution of symbols, add Psapi.lib to the TARGETLIBS macro and compile the program with -DPSAPI_VERSION=1. To use run-time dynamic linking, load Psapi.dll. K32GetModuleFileNameEx.
********** 
[----------[ END_QUOTE ]----------]

Then about the hardcoded limit to the path's length. While I expect the big majority of the users running their application from a path that fits within MAX_PATH chars, the path length could very well exceed MAX_PATH. Now there are various approaches to returning a correct path. One such approach could be to call GetModuleFileNameEx in a loop, with every iteration increasing the nSize-value and increasing the size of the receiving buffer, until the returned nSize-value no longer increases.