What is the difference between Server.MapPath and HostingEnvironment.MapPath?

Question

Is there any difference between Server.MapPath() and HostingEnvironment.MapPath()? Does Server.MapPath() have any advantages over HostingEnvironment.MapPath()?

My original problem was mapping the file path on a server when the HttpContext is not present and I cannot pass a Server variable from Global.asax to my method.

I used HostingEnvironment.MapPath() instead since it doesn't need HttpContext. Are there any situations when these two methods will give different results?

Related post - [Server.MapPath("."), Server.MapPath("~"), Server.MapPath(@"\"), Server.MapPath("/"). What is the difference?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/275781/465053) — RBT, Sep 20 '21 at 04:44

score 219 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 02 '15 at 10:09

219

Server.MapPath() eventually calls HostingEnvironment.MapPath(), but it creates a VirtualPath object with specific options:

The VirtualPath object passed to HostingEnvironment.MapPath() is constructed like this:
VirtualPath.Create(path, VirtualPathOptions.AllowAllPath|VirtualPathOptions.AllowNull);

Edit: in reality, the only difference is that you are allowed to pass null to Server.MapPath(), but not to HostingEnvironment.MapPath()

edited Nov 02 '15 at 10:09

shA.t

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answered Jun 03 '09 at 11:43

Philippe Leybaert

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So I will always get same results from both methods, right? (excluding null argument) – empi Jun 03 '09 at 11:52
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**TL;DR**: always use `HostingEnvironment.MapPath()` to keep sanity. (+1) – Chris Marisic Jun 01 '12 at 20:23
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There must be something different beyond null because `Server.MapPath("myFolder")` works fine but to get the same result with HostingEnvironment, I had to use `HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/myFolder")`. – styfle Nov 14 '12 at 23:54
Fantastic answer for initiating an ftp session via a call to a web service. Saved me huge today!!! – htm11h Mar 05 '14 at 15:54
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Actually there is another difference - relative paths (e.g. Image/pict.png) are not allowed with HostingEnvironment.MapPath. – NetMage Sep 04 '14 at 22:25

score 120 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 29 '11 at 22:56

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Server.MapPath() requires an HttpContext. HostingEnvironment.MapPath does not.

edited Jun 29 '11 at 22:56

George Stocker

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answered Jun 03 '09 at 11:44

Mark Struzinski

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but both require `System.Web` so will they work with Self Hosted OWIN environments? – vibs2006 Jul 03 '18 at 11:08

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 26 '22 at 02:30

Are there any situations when these two methods will give different results?

In WCF service, because of the null HttpContext.Current, you can't get the path by Server.MapPath() and will get a HttpException, but you can get the path by HostingEnvironment.MapPath().

// This will get a Http Exception
string path = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("myPath");
// This will get your path
string path = System.Web.HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/myPath");

Reference:

What is the difference between Server.MapPath and HostingEnvironment.MapPath?

3 Answers3

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