PWD(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual PWD(1P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the correspond-
ing 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.1-2008, 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 that does not contain the filenames dot or
dot-dot, pwd shall write this pathname to standard output. Otherwise, if the PWD environment variable contains a pathname of the
current directory that is longer than {PATH_MAX} bytes including the terminating null, and the pathname does not contain any com-
ponents that are dot or dot-dot, 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 path-
name 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.1-2008, 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
", <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 stan-
dard output.
An earlier version of this standard stated that the PWD environment variable was affected when the -P option was in effect. This was incor-
rect; conforming implementations do not do this.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
cd
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1-2008, getcwd()
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technol-
ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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 Stan-
dard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/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 2013 PWD(1P)