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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
pwd — return working directory name
SYNOPSIS
pwd [-L|-P]
DESCRIPTION
The pwd utility shall write to standard output an absolute pathname of the current working directory,
which does not contain the filenames dot or dot-dot.
OPTIONS
The pwd utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines.
The following options shall be supported by the implementation:
-L If the PWD environment variable contains an absolute pathname of the current directory and the
pathname does not contain any components that are dot or dot-dot, pwd shall write this pathname
to standard output, except that if the PWD environment variable is longer than {PATH_MAX} bytes
including the terminating null, it is unspecified whether pwd writes this pathname to standard
output or behaves as if the -P option had been specified. Otherwise, the -L option shall behave
as the -P option.
-P The pathname written to standard output shall not contain any components that refer to files of
type symbolic link. If there are multiple pathnames that the pwd utility could write to
standard output, one beginning with a single <slash> character and one or more beginning with
two <slash> characters, then it shall write the pathname beginning with a single <slash>
character. The pathname shall not contain any unnecessary <slash> characters after the leading
one or two <slash> characters.
If both -L and -P are specified, the last one shall apply. If neither -L nor -P is specified, the pwd
utility shall behave as if -L had been specified.
OPERANDS
None.
STDIN
Not used.
INPUT FILES
None.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of pwd:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the
Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables the
precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale
categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization
variables.
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
PWD An absolute pathname of the current working directory. If an application sets or unsets the
value of PWD, the behavior of pwd is unspecified.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The pwd utility output is an absolute pathname of the current working directory:
"%s\n", <directory pathname>
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
If an error is detected, output shall not be written to standard output, a diagnostic message shall be
written to standard error, and the exit status is not zero.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
If the pathname obtained from pwd is longer than {PATH_MAX} bytes, it could produce an error if passed to
cd. Therefore, in order to return to that directory it may be necessary to break the pathname into
sections shorter than {PATH_MAX} and call cd on each section in turn (the first section being an absolute
pathname and subsequent sections being relative pathnames).
EXAMPLES
None.
RATIONALE
Some implementations have historically provided pwd as a shell special built-in command.
In most utilities, if an error occurs, partial output may be written to standard output. This does not
happen in historical implementations of pwd. Because pwd is frequently used in historical shell scripts
without checking the exit status, it is important that the historical behavior is required here;
therefore, the CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS section specifically disallows any partial output being written to
standard output.
An earlier version of this standard stated that the PWD environment variable was affected when the -P
option was in effect. This was incorrect; conforming implementations do not do this.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
cd
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines
The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017, getcwd()
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard
for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document.
The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 PWD(1POSIX)