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. Otherwise, the function returns a null pointer and sets errno to indicate
the error.
ERRORS
The getcwd() function will fail if:
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);
...
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.
EXAMPLES
Example 2: Printing 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);
}
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 5.10 18 Oct 2004 getcwd(3C)