Cwd(3) Cwd(3)
NAME
getcwd - get pathname of current working directory
SYNOPSIS
use Cwd;
$dir = cwd;
use Cwd;
$dir = getcwd;
use Cwd;
$dir = fastgetcwd;
use Cwd 'chdir';
chdir "/tmp";
print $ENV{'PWD'};
DESCRIPTION
The getcwd() function re-implements the getcwd(3) (or getwd(3)) functions
in Perl.
The fastcwd() function looks the same as getcwd(), but runs faster. It's
also more dangerous because it might conceivably chdir() you out of a
directory that it can't chdir() you back into. If fastcwd encounters a
problem it will return undef but will probably leave you in a different
directory. For a measure of extra security, if everything appears to
have worked, the fastcwd() function will check that it leaves you in the
same directory that it started in. If it has changed it will die with the
message "Unstable directory path, current directory changed
unexpectedly". That should never happen.
The cwd() function looks the same as getcwd and fastgetcwd but is
implemented using the most natural and safe form for the current
architecture. For most systems it is identical to `pwd` (but without the
trailing line terminator).
It is recommended that cwd (or another *cwd() function) is used in all
code to ensure portability.
If you ask to override your chdir() built-in function, then your PWD
environment variable will be kept up to date. (See the section on
Overriding Builtin Functions in the perlsub manpage.) Note that it will
only be kept up to date if all packages which use chdir import it from
Cwd.
Page 1