pwd – print working directory

pwd prints the full path of your current working directory. Use it to confirm where you are in the filesystem.

Synopsis

pwd [OPTIONS]

Options

Examples

Show current directory

$ pwd
/home/greys

Navigate and confirm

$ cd /var/log
$ pwd
/var/log

Logical vs physical path

When your current directory is accessed via a symlink:

$ ls -l /data
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Jan 15 10:00 /data -> /mnt/storage

$ cd /data
$ pwd
/data

$ pwd -P
/mnt/storage

Use in scripts

#!/bin/bash
SCRIPT_DIR=$(pwd)
echo "Running from: $SCRIPT_DIR"

Save location for later

$ ORIGINAL_DIR=$(pwd)
$ cd /tmp
$ # ... do work ...
$ cd "$ORIGINAL_DIR"

PWD Environment Variable

The current directory is also stored in the $PWD variable:

$ echo $PWD
/home/greys

$ cd /etc
$ echo $PWD
/etc

Tips

• Prompt customization: Many shells show pwd in the prompt (e.g., \w in bash)
• Use $PWD in scripts: Faster than calling pwd command
• Combine with other commands: ls $(pwd) or find $(pwd) -name "*.txt"

See Also

Related Commands

• cd — Change directory
• ls — List directory contents
• dirname — Strip filename from path
• basename — Strip directory from path

Tutorials

• Basic Unix Commands
• Filesystem Navigation