What is current directory of shell script? Is this current directory from which I called it? Or this directory where the script is located?
Linux Shell Script – How to Get Current Directory
directorylinuxshworking-directory
Related Solutions
what shell? What operating system?
For starters try
man pwd
$PWD
TL;DR
#!/bin/bash
cd "$(dirname "$0")"
The long winded explanation
How does this work and how does it deal with edge and corner cases?
- You type a command launching the script in your interactive shell.
- That interactive shell calls
bashwith some name which tellsbashthe script to run. - That
bashthen callsdirnamewith the bash argument which points to the script. - Finally, that
bashthen callscdwith the output ofdirnameas its argument.
| script invocation command | bash argument |
dirname argument |
cd argument |
|---|---|---|---|
foo (found in $PATH at /path/to/foo) |
/path/to/foo |
/path/to/foo |
/path/to |
bash foo |
foo |
foo |
. |
/foo |
/foo |
/foo |
/ |
./foo |
./foo |
./foo |
. |
"/pa th/to/foo" |
/pa th/to/foo |
/pa th/to/foo |
/pa th/to |
"./pa th/to/foo" |
./pa th/to/foo |
./pa th/to/foo |
./pa th/to |
"../pa th/to/foo" |
../pa th/to/foo |
../pa th/to/foo |
../pa th/to |
"../../pa th/to/foo" |
../../pa th/to/foo |
../../pa th/to/foo |
../../pa th/to |
"pa th/to/foo" |
pa th/to/foo |
pa th/to/foo |
pa th/to |
--help/foo |
--help/foo * |
N/A | N/A |
--help |
N/A ** | N/A | N/A |
On symlinks
The cd command will follow symlinks if they are involved. A symlink usually exists to be followed, so in most situations following the symlink is the correct thing to do. Why would it be a problem for the code in the script to follow a symlink when it was just fine to follow that same symlink a few microseconds ago when loading the script?
On command arguments starting with hyphens
Elaborating on the two cases of arguments starting with hyphens in above table (marked with * and **, respectively):
* There is only one case where the argument to the dirname could begin with a -, and that is the relative path case --help/foo. If the script is in a subdirectory called --help, the script execution will run bash --help/foo, and bash does not know that option --help/foo and will therefore abort with an error message. The script will never execute, so it does not matter what the cd "$(dirname "$0")" would have executed.
** Note that calling the script --help makes the shell not find the command when you are typing --help in the same directory. Alternatively, with $PATH containing the current directory, the script will be run as /path/to/--help or ./--help, always with something in front of the - character.
Unless bash introduces command line arguments with a parameter separated by a =, it is unlikely to impossible to pass a - argument to bash which contains a / later, and which is accepted by bash.
If you can rely on dirname accepting -- argument (bash builtin cd will certainly accept --), you can change the script snippet to
cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")"
Please do comment if you can figure out a way to construct an argument beginning with - which can be sneaked past bash.
Nota bene
The above snippet also works with non-bash /bin/sh.
Best Answer
As already mentioned, the location will be where the script was called from. If you wish to have the script reference it's installed location, it's quite simple. Below is a snippet that will print the PWD and the installed directory: