How to set relative paths in app.config file?

Question

I am working on a project in which I have many text and xml files. I read them from my program at runtime.

I saved the paths to those files in the app.config file, but all the paths are absolute paths like "C: \ my_project \ help_files \ rejectList.txt".

If I save only the path "\ help_files \ rejectList.txt", the program throws a filenotfound exception.

Can anyone please tell me how to set relative paths in C# applications? 

I would like to set something like "$ root \ help_files \ rejectList.txt", and at runtime $ root should be allowed to the actual path.

 Is there any way in .net to set paths like this? 

Also, I have one more question. I also have dlls that are needed for my project. Where do people usually store dlls? In the same folder as in the exe file, or should we create one folder named lib and put the dll there?

Thanks and Regards, Shekhar

Answer 1

answer 1: check class path

answer2: save your DLL in the project output directory. debug / release

see below

Visual Studio Solution Build Optimization - Where to Place DLL Files?