UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Let's say that when in /home/fred you cannot run pwd. Do:
ls -ld /
ls -ld /home
ls -ld /home/fred

and

cd / ; /usr/bin/pwd
cd /home ; /usr/bin/pwd
cd /home/fred ; /usr/bin/pwd

and you should be able to see where the problem is. You need read and search permission on all directories down to / to run a pwd.

unmount the filesystem
chmod 755 the mount point
remount the filesystem

ie:
If the problem was with /home/applications I would.

Code:

cd /
umount /home/applications
chmod 755 /home/applications
mount /home/applications

Hi Perderabo

Following is the o/p after executing the commands. BUT I couldn't find where the problem is. How should I know what the problem is.

I logged is as tibco user id.

tibco@kplus_int [/home/applications] > man ls
getcwd: Permission denied
tibco@kplus_int [/home/applications] > ls -ld /
drwxr-xr-x 29 root root 1024 Nov 8 16:02 /
tibco@kplus_int [/home/applications] > ls -ld /home
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 512 Oct 9 10:57 /home
tibco@kplus_int [/home/applications] > ls -ld /home/applications
drwxrwxr-x 4 tibco tibco 512 May 7 2003 /home/applications
tibco@kplus_int [/home/applications] > cd /;/usr/bin/which ls
/usr/bin/ls
tibco@kplus_int [/] > cd -
/home/applications
tibco@kplus_int [/home/applications] > cd /
tibco@kplus_int [/] > cd /home;/usr/bin/which ls
/usr/bin/ls
tibco@kplus_int [/home] > cd /home/applications;/usr/bin/which ls
Warning: cannot determine current directory
/usr/bin/ls
tibco@kplus_int [/home/applications] >

Thanks

I hate to seem picky, but I asked for "cd /; /usr/bin/pwd". You somehow changed that to "cd /; /usr/bin/which ls". In this case that was good enough to determine where the problem is. But you need to follow directions more closely. A wild fumble can be disasterous. Note that
cd /home;/usr/bin/which ls
succeeded. But then
cd /home/applications;/usr/bin/which ls
failed. This is the clue that the problem is indeed which /home/applications. You need to follow the procedure that Tornado gave. But follow it exactly.

This is really a bug in Solaris. In every other Unix version the permissions on the hidden mountpoint do not matter. But it has been this way for years and Sun does not seem inclined to fix it.

Hi Perderabo

It seems U have mistaken me. 'pwd' command is working fine in all the directories that's why I chose 'which' command so that I can better explain the errorneous situation.

If U observe all my postings, From the beginning(2nd posting), I knew that the culprit is /home/applications and its subdirs. BUT when I checked the perms, everything seems O.K.

So, I couldn't pin point where exactly the prob. is. I don't know that it is a BUG in solaris.

Anyway thanks 4 all ur suggestions.

pwd != /usr/bin/pwd

The shell's internal pwd is not useful in this case.

U r correct, I checked with /usr/bin/pwd.

If U don't mind, Can U throw some more light on the foll.

In which situations,we get this error (cannot determine current directory!), Bec'se perms seems O.K. on all dirs down to /.