Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!convex!convex.COM
From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: How to find working directory?
Message-ID: <104612@convex.convex.com>
Date: 3 Aug 90 19:08:31 GMT
References: <139945@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <8974@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <21198@duke.cs.duke.edu>
Sender: news@convex.com
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX
Lines: 21

In article <21198@duke.cs.duke.edu> khera@cs.duke.edu (Vick Khera) writes:
>In article <8974@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) writes:
>:I stop just short of saying the programs are busted.

>GNU Emacs uses PWD if it exists.  my normal login shell updates PWD
>but /bin/csh doesn't (under 4.3BSD) so when i fire up emacs after
>su'ing to another user, emacs gets the wrong directory.  i'd say this
>is busted.

I'm not sure which you say is busted.  It seems highly suspect
to look at your environment for the $PWD.  It's like trusting
it for $USER.  Use getwd() and getpwnam(getuid()) for these.  
What if a program does its own chdir() followed by an exec()
or system()?  

--tom
--

    Tom Christiansen                       {uunet,uiucdcs,sun}!convex!tchrist 
    Convex Computer Corporation                            tchrist@convex.COM
		 "EMACS belongs in <sys/errno.h>: Editor too big!"