NAME

       pwd - return working directory name

SYNOPSIS

       pwd [-L | -P ]

DESCRIPTION

       The pwd utility shall write to standard output an absolute pathname of the current working
       directory, which does not contain the filenames dot or dot-dot.

OPTIONS

       The pwd utility shall conform to the  Base  Definitions  volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
       Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported by the implementation:

       -L     If  the  PWD  environment  variable  contains  an  absolute pathname of the current
              directory that does not contain the filenames dot or dot-dot, pwd shall write  this
              pathname  to  standard  output.  Otherwise,  the  -L  option shall behave as the -P
              option.

       -P     The absolute pathname written shall not contain filenames that, in the  context  of
              the pathname, refer to files of type symbolic link.

       If  both  -L  and  -P  are  specified,  the last one shall apply.  If neither -L nor -P is
       specified, the pwd utility shall behave as if -L had been specified.

OPERANDS

       None.

STDIN

       Not used.

INPUT FILES

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of pwd:

       LANG   Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that  are  unset  or
              null.  (See  the  Base  Definitions  volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2,
              Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables
              used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If  set  to  a  non-empty  string  value,  override  the  values  of  all the other
              internationalization variables.

       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine the locale that should be used to  affect  the  format  and  contents  of
              diagnostic messages written to standard error.

       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .

       PWD    If  the  -P option is in effect, this variable shall be set to an absolute pathname
              of the current working directory that does not contain any components that  specify
              symbolic  links, does not contain any components that are dot, and does not contain
              any components that are dot-dot. If an application sets or unsets the value of  PWD
              , the behavior of pwd is unspecified.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

       Default.

STDOUT

       The pwd utility output is an absolute pathname of the current working directory:

              "%s\n", <directory pathname>

STDERR

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       None.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0     Successful completion.

       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

       If  an  error  is  detected,  output shall not be written to standard output, a diagnostic
       message shall be written to standard error, and the exit status is not zero.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

       None.

EXAMPLES

       None.

RATIONALE

       Some implementations have historically provided pwd as a shell special built-in command.

       In most utilities, if an error occurs, partial output may be written to  standard  output.
       This  does not happen in historical implementations of pwd. Because pwd is frequently used
       in historical shell scripts without checking the exit status, it  is  important  that  the
       historical  behavior  is  required  here;  therefore,  the  CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS section
       specifically disallows any partial output being written to standard output.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       cd , the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, getcwd()

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and  reproduced  in  electronic  form  from  IEEE  Std
       1003.1,  2003  Edition,  Standard  for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
       Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003  by
       the  Institute  of  Electrical  and  Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE  and  The  Open  Group
       Standard,  the  original  IEEE  and  The  Open Group Standard is the referee document. The
       original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .