#include <unistd.h>

char *getcwd(char *buf, size_t size);

The getcwd() function places an absolute pathname of the current working directory in the array pointed to by buf, and returns buf. The pathname copied to the array contains no components that are symbolic links. The size argument is the size in bytes of the character array pointed to by buf and must be at least one greater than the length of the pathname to be returned.

If buf is not a null pointer, the pathname is stored in the space pointed to by buf.

If buf is a null pointer, getcwd() obtains size bytes of space using malloc(3C). The pointer returned by getcwd() can be used as the argument in a subsequent call to free().

Upon successful completion, getcwd() returns the buf argument. If buf is an invalid destination buffer address, NULL is returned and errno is set to EFAULT. Otherwise, a null pointer is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

The getcwd() function will fail if: EFAULT

The getcwd() function may fail if: EACCES

Example 1 Determine the absolute pathname of the current working directory.

The following example returns a pointer to an array that holds the absolute pathname of the current working directory. The pointer is returned in the ptr variable, which points to the buf array where the pathname is stored.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
...
long size;
char *buf;
char *ptr;
size = pathconf(".", _PC_PATH_MAX);
if ((buf = (char *)malloc((size_t)size)) != NULL)
 ptr = getcwd(buf, (size_t)size);
...

Example 2 Print the current working directory.

The following example prints the current working directory.

#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>

main(\|)
{
 char *cwd;
 if ((cwd = getcwd(NULL, 64)) == NULL) {
 perror("pwd");
 exit(2);
 }
 (void)printf("%s\en", cwd);
 free(cwd); /* free memory allocated by getcwd() */
 return(0);
}

Applications should exercise care when using chdir(2) in conjunction with getcwd(). The current working directory is global to all threads within a process. If more than one thread calls chdir() to change the working directory, a subsequent call to getcwd() could produce unexpected results.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

chdir(2), malloc(3C), attributes(5), standards(5)