pwd

pwd — "print working directory" — prints the absolute path of the directory you are currently in.

pwd [options]

$ pwd
/home/jack/projects

Every process has a working directory: the directory that relative path names are interpreted against. pwd tells you what yours is.

Physical and logical paths #

There are two honest answers to "where am I", and they differ only when symbolic links are involved.

Suppose /home/jack/work is a symbolic link pointing at /data/projects/jack, and you move into it. The physical path — the real location, with every link resolved — is /data/projects/jack. The logical path — the route you took to get there — is /home/jack/work.

By default pwd prints the physical path — -P is the default, and naming it explicitly just makes that choice visible. Use -L when you want the path as you navigated it, links and all.

If -L is requested but the recorded PWD value is missing or does not actually match the current directory, pwd falls back to the physical path rather than print something wrong.

A note on shells #

Many command shells provide their own built-in pwd, and the shell's version is what runs when you type pwd at a prompt. The two behave the same for everyday use. To be certain you are running this command rather than the shell built-in, invoke it by its full path.

Exit status #