UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

How do you get the $PWD env variable set for root? I know it's automatic for korn and other shells, but root uses /usr/bin/sh.

I assume that you want the current directory as the prompt. I do not beleive that the bourne shell supports this functionality. You can change root's shell, but make sure that it is either in the same directory as the current shell, or that it is on the root slice of the disk.

have you tried

<pre>

echo $PWD

</pre>

Aris ;=)

If you shell doesn't set the PWD variable for you automatically, you could always try:
alias cd="cd $@ ; PWD=`pwd`"

You can add that to your .profile, although it may slow you down some...

Thank to all of you..
This was something I was wondering about for quite a while.

I believe that the man page for "cd" says it all.

The variable $HOME controls where you go when you type "cd" <enter>. NOT the $PWD variable.

If you change the variable HOME to HOME=/root for instance, your new "home" directory for root will be "/root" not "/".



NAME
cd - change working directory

SYNOPSIS
cd [directory]

DESCRIPTION
If directory is not specified, the value of shell parameter HOME is
used as the new working directory. If directory specifies a complete
path starting with /, ., .., directory becomes the new working
directory. If neither case applies, cd tries to find the designated
directory relative to one of the paths specified by the CDPATH shell
variable. CDPATH has the same syntax as, and similar semantics to,
the PATH shell variable. cd must have execute (search) permission in directory.