Unix and Linux Stack Exchange
Unix and Linux Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [pwd]

For questions about the working directory of processes, as well as the `pwd` command

The working directory is the starting directory when a process searches for relative paths. In shell, the pwd command prints the current working directory.

See also:

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Is it better to use $(pwd) or $PWD?

I encountered BASEDIR=$(pwd) in a script. Are there any advantages or disadvantages over using BASEDIR="$PWD", other than maybe, that $PWD could be overwritten?
Minix
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Make pwd result in terms of "~"?

pwd gives me /data/users/me/some/random/folder Is there an easy way of obtaining ~/some/random/folder from pwd?
Sibbs Gambling
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32
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How to get the cd shell-builtin to stop guessing?

For example: $ ls -aF ./ ../ bin/ $ cd tin # with a tee, not bee bin $ pwd /home/user/bin In other words, cd guesses that what I really meant was cd bin, and successfully (huh?) changes the current directory accordingly. I do not find this behavior…
Ana Nimbus
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How does Unix keep track of a user's working directory when navigating the file system?

Say I log into a shell on a unix system and begin tapping away commands. I initially begin in my user's home directory ~. I might from there cd down to the directory Documents. The command to change working directory here is very simple intuitively…
marked-down
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PS1='$(pwd)' why this works and why is this different from PS1=$(pwd)

Why when I enter this command the prompt changes to my directory? PS1='$(pwd)' I am using single quotes, which means no interpolation , a.k.a echo '$(pwd)' ——→ $(pwd) Furthermore, say that we clarified why this works... why is it functioning…
HashWizard
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7 answers

Compact bash prompt when using a directory tree / filename

In a system with Ubuntu 14.04 and bash, I have the PS1 variable ending with the following contents: \u@\h:\w\$ so that the prompt appears as user@machinename:/home/mydirectory$ Sometimes, however, the current directory has a long name, or it is…
BowPark
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Strange difference between pwd and /bin/pwd

I added a symlink to the current directory with ln -s . aa. If I execute cd aa, and after that I executed pwd, the response is /home/sim/aa. But if I execute /bin/pwd it prints /home/sim (the current directory hasn't changed). Where does this…
user3581976
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Why did 'scp 10.0.0.11:/home/someuser/.*' start copying from /home as well?

I'm doing my first ever moving of user files from an old system to a new system. My goal is to use SCP for it's simple syntax of scp -r source destination. I tried the following command to copy the files first: scp -r [email protected]:/home/someuser/*…
Brian
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4 answers

`ls` error when directory is deleted

I have two shells open. The first is in directory A. In the second, I remove directory A, and then recreate it. When I go back to the first shell, and type ls, the output is: ls: cannot open directory .: Stale file handle Why? I thought the first…
fonini
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Why pwd does not accept long options like --physical?

When I display the manual for pwd command, it says that long options like --physical are supported $ man pwd PWD(1) User Commands PWD(1) NAME pwd - print name of current/working…
Michal Kordas
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How can I run a command in bash after any change in $PWD?

zsh provides some nice hook functions, including chpwd for running a function after the user changes directories. # zsh only function greet() { echo 'hi'; } chpwd_functions+=("greet") cd .. # hi pushd # hi popd # hi I'm trying to emulate that in…
Nathan Long
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Etymology of $PWD

What is the etymology of $PWD? Is it an acronym? I know there is a command pwd which prints working directory, but to my mind, it would have made more sense to name the variable $CWD for Current Working Directory, since shell variables contain data,…
Tom Hale
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A command that gives username@hostname:pwd

I know that pwd gives the current working directory, hostname gives the current host and whoami gives the current user. Is there a single unix command that will give me the output of whoami@hostname:pwd so that I can quickly paste the output into…
Hooked
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What happens when the current directory is deleted?

In the first terminal A, I create a directory, enter the directory, and create a file: $ mkdir test $ cd test $ touch file1.txt $ ls file1.txt Then in another terminal B, I delete the directory: $ rm -r test $ mkdir test $ cd test $ touch…
wenzeslaus
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why piping pwd and echo does not work?

I'm new to unix. I typed this command in ubuntu terminal: pwd | echo I expected to see the output of pwd in terminal(/home/fatemeh/Documents/Code/test) but the output was just a single empty line. why this happens?
Fatemeh Karimi
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