getcwd.3p (7987B)
- '\" et
- .TH GETCWD "3P" 2017 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
- .\"
- .SH PROLOG
- This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
- The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
- the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
- or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
- .\"
- .SH NAME
- getcwd
- \(em get the pathname of the current working directory
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- .LP
- .nf
- #include <unistd.h>
- .P
- char *getcwd(char *\fIbuf\fP, size_t \fIsize\fP);
- .fi
- .SH DESCRIPTION
- The
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- function shall place an absolute pathname of the current working directory
- in the array pointed to by
- .IR buf ,
- and return
- .IR buf .
- The pathname shall contain no components that are dot or dot-dot, or
- are symbolic links.
- .P
- If there are multiple pathnames that
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- could place in the array pointed to by
- .IR buf ,
- one beginning with a single
- <slash>
- character and one or more beginning with two
- <slash>
- characters, then
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- shall place the pathname beginning with a single
- <slash>
- character in the array. The pathname shall not contain any unnecessary
- <slash>
- characters after the leading one or two
- <slash>
- characters.
- .P
- The
- .IR size
- argument is the size in bytes of the character array pointed to by the
- .IR buf
- argument. If
- .IR buf
- is a null pointer, the behavior of
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- is unspecified.
- .SH "RETURN VALUE"
- Upon successful completion,
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- shall return the
- .IR buf
- argument. Otherwise,
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- shall return a null pointer and set
- .IR errno
- to indicate the error. The contents of the array pointed to by
- .IR buf
- are then undefined.
- .SH ERRORS
- The
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- function shall fail if:
- .TP
- .BR EINVAL
- The
- .IR size
- argument is 0.
- .TP
- .BR ERANGE
- The
- .IR size
- argument is greater than 0, but is smaller than the length of
- the string +1.
- .P
- The
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- function may fail if:
- .TP
- .BR EACCES
- Search permission was denied for the current directory, or read or search
- permission was denied for a directory above the current directory in
- the file hierarchy.
- .TP
- .BR ENOMEM
- Insufficient storage space is available.
- .LP
- .IR "The following sections are informative."
- .SH EXAMPLES
- The following example uses
- {PATH_MAX}
- as the initial buffer size (unless it is indeterminate or very large),
- and calls
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- with progressively larger buffers until it does not give an
- .BR [ERANGE]
- error.
- .sp
- .RS 4
- .nf
- #include <stdlib.h>
- #include <errno.h>
- #include <unistd.h>
- .P
- \&...
- .P
- long path_max;
- size_t size;
- char *buf;
- char *ptr;
- .P
- path_max = pathconf(".", _PC_PATH_MAX);
- if (path_max == -1)
- size = 1024;
- else if (path_max > 10240)
- size = 10240;
- else
- size = path_max;
- .P
- for (buf = ptr = NULL; ptr == NULL; size *= 2)
- {
- if ((buf = realloc(buf, size)) == NULL)
- {
- ... handle error ...
- }
- .P
- ptr = getcwd(buf, size);
- if (ptr == NULL && errno != ERANGE)
- {
- ... handle error ...
- }
- }
- \&...
- free (buf);
- .fi
- .P
- .RE
- .SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
- If the pathname obtained from
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- is longer than
- {PATH_MAX}
- bytes, it could produce an
- .BR [ENAMETOOLONG]
- error if passed to
- \fIchdir\fR().
- Therefore, in order to return to that directory it may be necessary to
- break the pathname into sections shorter than
- {PATH_MAX}
- bytes and call
- \fIchdir\fR()
- on each section in turn (the first section being an absolute pathname and
- subsequent sections being relative pathnames). A simpler way to handle
- saving and restoring the working directory when it may be deeper than
- {PATH_MAX}
- bytes in the file hierarchy is to use a file descriptor and
- \fIfchdir\fR(),
- rather than
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- and
- \fIchdir\fR().
- However, the two methods do have some differences. The
- \fIfchdir\fR()
- approach causes the program to restore a working directory even
- if it has been renamed in the meantime, whereas the
- \fIchdir\fR()
- approach restores to a directory with the same name as the original,
- even if the directories were renamed in the meantime. Since the
- \fIfchdir\fR()
- approach does not access parent directories, it can succeed when
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- would fail due to permissions problems. In applications conforming to
- earlier versions of this standard, it was not possible to use the
- \fIfchdir\fR()
- approach when the working directory is searchable but not readable,
- as the only way to open a directory was with O_RDONLY, whereas the
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- approach can succeed in this case.
- .SH RATIONALE
- Having
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- take no arguments and instead use the
- \fImalloc\fR()
- function to produce space for the returned argument was considered.
- The advantage is that
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- knows how big the working directory pathname is and can allocate an
- appropriate amount of space. But the programmer would have to use the
- \fIfree\fR()
- function to free the resulting object, or each use of
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- would further reduce the available memory. Finally,
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- is taken from the SVID where it has the two arguments used in this volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017.
- .P
- The older function
- .IR getwd (\|)
- was rejected for use in this context because it had only a buffer
- argument and no
- .IR size
- argument, and thus had no way to prevent overwriting the buffer, except
- to depend on the programmer to provide a large enough buffer.
- .P
- On some implementations, if
- .IR buf
- is a null pointer,
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- may obtain
- .IR size
- bytes of memory using
- \fImalloc\fR().
- In this case, the pointer returned by
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- may be used as the argument in a subsequent call to
- \fIfree\fR().
- Invoking
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- with
- .IR buf
- as a null pointer is not recommended in conforming applications.
- .P
- Earlier implementations of
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- sometimes generated pathnames like
- .BR \(dq../../../subdirname\(dq
- internally, using them to explore the path of ancestor directories back
- to the root. If one of these internal pathnames exceeded
- {PATH_MAX}
- in length, the implementation could fail with
- .IR errno
- set to
- .BR [ENAMETOOLONG] .
- This is no longer allowed.
- .P
- If a program is operating in a directory where some (grand)parent
- directory does not permit reading,
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- may fail, as in most implementations it must read the directory to
- determine the name of the file. This can occur if search, but not read,
- permission is granted in an intermediate directory, or if the program
- is placed in that directory by some more privileged process (for
- example, login). Including the
- .BR [EACCES]
- error condition makes the reporting of the error consistent and warns
- the application developer that
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- can fail for reasons beyond the control of the application developer or
- user. Some implementations can avoid this occurrence (for example, by
- implementing
- \fIgetcwd\fR()
- using
- .IR pwd ,
- where
- .IR pwd
- is a set-user-root process),
- thus the error was made optional. Since this volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017 permits the addition of
- other errors, this would be a common addition and yet one that
- applications could not be expected to deal with without this addition.
- .SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
- None.
- .SH "SEE ALSO"
- .IR "\fImalloc\fR\^(\|)"
- .P
- The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "\fB<unistd.h>\fP"
- .\"
- .SH COPYRIGHT
- Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
- from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
- -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
- Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
- Copyright (C) 2018 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 .
- .PP
- Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
- in this page are most likely
- to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
- man page format. To report such errors, see
- https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .