I have written a c# application in Visual Studio (using Avalonia, irrelevant for this question).

It runs perfectly in Visual Studio, Yet when I try and run the executable it throws a NullReference Exception. I have added error checking to find out the error is based on the reading of my settings.json file.

For now, I have placed the settings file in “Documents/ContactFinder/Settings.json”

Essentially when the application starts, it runs my initLoader method which contains this code:

public void initLoader()
    {
        string docs = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
        string path = Path.Combine(docs, "ContactFinder");
        if (!Directory.Exists(path))
        {
            Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
        }

        string settingsPath = Path.Combine(path, "settings.json");
        if (!File.Exists(settingsPath))
        {
            Settings set = new Settings();
            set.restoreDefaults();
            File.WriteAllText(settingsPath, JsonConvert.SerializeObject(set));
        }
    }

Then it calls LoadSettings, which then also pushes the settings to the application as follows:

public void LoadSettings()
    {
        try
        {
            string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments) + "/ContactFinder/settings.json";
            if (!File.Exists(path))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Settings file not found: " + path);
                throw new FileNotFoundException("Settings file not found", path);
            }

            string json = File.ReadAllText(path);
            Console.WriteLine("Settings file content: " + json);

            Settings set = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Settings>(json);
            pushSettings(set);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Error loading settings: {ex.Message}");
            throw;
        }
    }

public void pushSettings(Settings set)
    {
        if (set == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(set), "Settings object is null");
        }
        ShortPMin = set.pauses.ShortPause.min.ToString();
        ShortPMax = set.pauses.ShortPause.max.ToString();
        MedPMin = set.pauses.MediumPause.min.ToString();
        MedPMax = set.pauses.MediumPause.max.ToString();
        MtlPMin = set.pauses.MtlPause.min.ToString();
        MtlPMax = set.pauses.MtlPause.max.ToString();
        LongPMin = set.pauses.LongPause.min.ToString();
        LongPMax = set.pauses.LongPause.max.ToString();
        PagePMin = set.pauses.PageLoad.min.ToString();
        PagePMax = set.pauses.PageLoad.max.ToString();
        SbEnabled = set.browser?.showBrowser ?? false;
        Users.Clear();
        if (set.logins.users != null)
        {
            foreach (var user in set.logins.users)
            {
                Users.Add(new LoginUsers(user.username, user.password));
            }
        }
        DefaultPages = set.search.defaultPageCount;
        bPages = DefaultPages;
        SelectedUser = Users.FirstOrDefault();
    }

Each of the variables set in the PushSettings method are bindings to the View, and all the previous methods listed are in the MainViewModel.cs

when I start debugging in visual studio it runs perfectly, outputs the contents of settings file to console. Pushes the settings to the app and it starts fine.

Here is how i attempt to start the application on Mac, for reference I am on Arm64. The error is shown here also

thomas@thomass-Mac-mini publish % chmod +x testMacArm642
thomas@thomass-Mac-mini publish % sudo ./testMacArm642
Password:
Settings file content: 
Error loading settings: Settings object is null (Parameter 'set')
Unhandled exception. System.ArgumentNullException: Settings object is null (Parameter 'set')
   at testMacArm642.ViewModels.MainWindowViewModel.pushSettings(Settings set) in /Users/thomas/Projects/testMacArm642/testMacArm642/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs:line 462
   at testMacArm642.ViewModels.MainWindowViewModel.LoadSettings() in /Users/thomas/Projects/testMacArm642/testMacArm642/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs:line 503
   at testMacArm642.ViewModels.MainWindowViewModel..ctor() in /Users/thomas/Projects/testMacArm642/testMacArm642/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs:line 407
   at testMacArm642.App.OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted() in /Users/thomas/Projects/testMacArm642/testMacArm642/App.axaml.cs:line 20
   at Avalonia.AppBuilder.SetupUnsafe()
   at Avalonia.AppBuilder.Setup()
   at Avalonia.AppBuilder.SetupWithLifetime(IApplicationLifetime lifetime)
   at Avalonia.ClassicDesktopStyleApplicationLifetimeExtensions.StartWithClassicDesktopLifetime(AppBuilder builder, String[] args, Action`1 lifetimeBuilder)
   at testMacArm642.Program.Main(String[] args) in /Users/thomas/Projects/testMacArm642/testMacArm642/Program.cs:line 13
zsh: abort      sudo ./testMacArm642
thomas@thomass-Mac-mini publish % 

what can i do to allow the application to read the settings file properly and load it into the program?

Thanks