Utility: pwd - print the folder you are in
Utility: pwd - print the folder you are in
Status: Built 2026-10-13, QEMU-verified (osdev test files). As-built reference.
Shape: shell built-in (see 0_conventions.md section 2).
1. Purpose
pwd prints the whole path of the current folder - the one a bare name like notes.txt means, and the
one cd moves. The prompt is a plain gsh> and does not show it, so this is how you ask.
gsh> pwd
/users/default
gsh> cd /system/services
/system/services
gsh> pwd
/system/services
A session starts in its home, /users/default (docs/filesystem-layout.md section 6), and a bare cd
goes back there.
2. Invocation
| Command | Meaning |
|---|---|
pwd | Print the current folder's whole path. |
pwd | write here.txt | It is a text producer, so it pipes like echo. |
pwd takes no argument; given one, it says so and does nothing.
3. Why the Unix word
Godspeed's words are its own (dir, read, delete), and the shell answers a Unix word with a hint
rather than running it (FOREIGN_HINTS, CLAUDE.md Appendix B.4). pwd is the deliberate exception, for
the reason cd already is one: cd was kept because everyone knows it (17_cd.md section 1), and pwd is
its other half - anyone who knows one knows the other. Its earlier stand-in, cd ., asked a reader to know
that . means "this folder", which is a Unix convention too, and one that names nothing.
4. Behaviour
Prints the session's current folder, which the shell holds itself (17_cd.md section 3). It asks fs
nothing, so it answers at once - with or without a disk - and it cannot say whether the folder still
exists: a folder deleted from under the session is reported by the next command that uses it.
5. Capabilities
- Console output only.
6. Conformance
Conforms: pwd help and pwd version (with a real example, per 0_conventions.md); listed by the shell's
top-level help under Storage; a pipe source (rule 12).