PWD(1) General Commands Manual PWD(1)

pwd — return working directory name

pwd [-L | -P]

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.

The pwd utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”), xbd_chap12(7).

The following options shall be supported by the implementation:

If the PWD environment variable contains an absolute pathname of the current directory that does not contain the filenames dot or dot-dot, pwd shall write this pathname to standard output. Otherwise, the -L option shall behave as the -P option.
The absolute pathname written shall not contain filenames that, in the context of the pathname, refer to files of type symbolic link.

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.

None.

Not used.

None.

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of pwd:

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”), Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)
If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
[ XSI] Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .
If the -P option is in effect, this variable shall be set to an absolute pathname of the current working directory that does not contain any components that specify symbolic links, does not contain any components that are dot, and does not contain any components that are dot-dot. If an application sets or unsets the value of PWD , the behavior of pwd is unspecified.

Default.

The pwd utility output is an absolute pathname of the current working directory:

"%s\n", <directory pathname>

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

None.

None.

The following exit values shall be returned:

Successful completion.
An error occurred.

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.

None.

None.

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.

None.

cd(1), the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”), getcwd(3)

First released in Issue 2.

The -P and -L options are added to describe actions relating to symbolic links as specified in the IEEE P1003.2b draft standard.

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December 6, 2001 posix.fail