--- layout: page category-page: fs category-title: FileSystem tags: working directory current position where author: Mirko Ponzio title: pwd ---

The command pwd(abbreviation of print working directory, it returns the corrent directory) it is a command of the operation system Unix and Unix-like, and in general of the systems POSIX, that show on the standard output the absolute pathname on the corrent directory.
Since a command line interface cannot provide graphic pictures of the file system structure, it must have a different way of representing it.
Think of the file system tree as a maze, and you are standing in it. At any given moment, you are located in a single directory.
Inside that directory, you can see its files and the pathway to its parent directory and the pathways to the subdirectories of the directory in which you are standing.
The working directory is the directory where you are standing in. So for knowing where you are, you must use the pwd command.

Flags

If no options are specified, the -L option is assumed.