"Sometimes people then write shell scripts and other code that assumes '$PWD' is... | Hacker News

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		1vuio0pswjnm7 on Nov 26, 2023 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Unix shells and the current directory "Sometimes people then write shell scripts and other code that assumes '$PWD' is accurate if it's present, which is not necessarily true." Unless one only wants the current directory name at the start of a script why not just use the builtin pwd command, $(pwd). Or getcwd() if it's "other code".

o11c on Nov 27, 2023 [–]

`$()` creates a subshell (a whole separate process) so is significantly slower than mere string manipulation.

`$PWD` is always set accurately at startup (for both interactive and non-interactive shells) in bash, dash, zsh, ksh93, mksh, and busybox ash.

So I'm really not sure where this assumption can be violated.

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