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getcwd(3c) [opensolaris man page]

getcwd(3C)						   Standard C Library Functions 						getcwd(3C)

NAME
getcwd - get pathname of current working directory SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h> char *getcwd(char *buf, size_t size); DESCRIPTION
The getcwd() function places an absolute pathname of the current working directory in the array pointed to by buf, and returns buf. The pathname copied to the array contains no components that are symbolic links. The size argument is the size in bytes of the character array pointed to by buf and must be at least one greater than the length of the pathname to be returned. If buf is not a null pointer, the pathname is stored in the space pointed to by buf. If buf is a null pointer, getcwd() obtains size bytes of space using malloc(3C). The pointer returned by getcwd() can be used as the argu- ment in a subsequent call to free(). RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, getcwd() returns the buf argument. If buf is an invalid destination buffer address, NULL is returned and errno is set to EFAULT. Otherwise, a null pointer is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS
The getcwd() function will fail if: EFAULT The buf argument is an invalid destination buffer address. EINVAL The size argument is equal to 0. ERANGE The size argument is greater than 0 and less than the length of the pathname plus 1. The getcwd() function may fail if: EACCES A parent directory cannot be read to get its name. ENOMEM Insufficient storage space is available. EXAMPLES
Example 1 Determine the absolute pathname of the current working directory. The following example returns a pointer to an array that holds the absolute pathname of the current working directory. The pointer is returned in the ptr variable, which points to the buf array where the pathname is stored. #include <stdlib.h> #include <unistd.h> ... long size; char *buf; char *ptr; size = pathconf(".", _PC_PATH_MAX); if ((buf = (char *)malloc((size_t)size)) != NULL) ptr = getcwd(buf, (size_t)size); ... Example 2 Print the current working directory. The following example prints the current working directory. #include <unistd.h> #include <stdio.h> main() { char *cwd; if ((cwd = getcwd(NULL, 64)) == NULL) { perror("pwd"); exit(2); } (void)printf("%s ", cwd); free(cwd); /* free memory allocated by getcwd() */ return(0); } USAGE
Applications should exercise care when using chdir(2) in conjunction with getcwd(). The current working directory is global to all threads within a process. If more than one thread calls chdir() to change the working directory, a subsequent call to getcwd() could produce unex- pected results. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Interface Stability |Standard | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |MT-Level |MT-Safe | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
chdir(2), malloc(3C), attributes(5), standards(5) SunOS 5.11 18 Oct 2004 getcwd(3C)

Check Out this Related Man Page

GETCWD(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 						 GETCWD(3)

NAME
getcwd, getwd -- get working directory pathname LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc) SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h> char * getcwd(char *buf, size_t size); char * getwd(char *buf); DESCRIPTION
The getcwd() function copies the absolute pathname of the current working directory into the memory referenced by buf and returns a pointer to buf. The size argument is the size, in bytes, of the array referenced by buf. If buf is NULL, space is allocated as necessary to store the pathname. This space may later be free(3)'d. The function getwd() is a compatibility routine which calls getcwd() with its buf argument and a size of MAXPATHLEN (as defined in the include file <sys/param.h>). Obviously, buf should be at least MAXPATHLEN bytes in length. These routines have traditionally been used by programs to save the name of a working directory for the purpose of returning to it. A much faster and less error-prone method of accomplishing this is to open the current directory ('.') and use the fchdir(2) function to return. RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, a pointer to the pathname is returned. Otherwise a NULL pointer is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error. In addition, getwd() copies the error message associated with errno into the memory referenced by buf. ERRORS
The getcwd() function will fail if: [EINVAL] The size argument is zero. [ENOENT] A component of the pathname no longer exists. [ENOMEM] Insufficient memory is available. [ERANGE] The size argument is greater than zero but smaller than the length of the pathname plus 1. The getcwd() function may fail if: [EACCES] Read or search permission was denied for a component of the pathname. This is only checked in limited cases, depending on implementation details. SEE ALSO
chdir(2), fchdir(2), malloc(3), strerror(3) STANDARDS
The getcwd() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (``POSIX.1''). The ability to specify a NULL pointer and have getcwd() allocate memory as necessary is an extension. HISTORY
The getwd() function appeared in 4.0BSD. BUGS
The getwd() function does not do sufficient error checking and is not able to return very long, but valid, paths. It is provided for compat- ibility. BSD
April 17, 2010 BSD
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