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)