Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: /bin/pwd
Message-ID: <13851@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 13 Sep 90 21:40:32 GMT
References: <2488@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 8

In article <2488@idunno.Princeton.EDU> pfalstad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Paul John Falstad) writes:
>Can anyone tell me how /bin/pwd works?  I thought it was a trivial
>program until I tried to write my own without getcwd(3).  getcwd is not
>a system call, so it must be possible.  The way I think it works is
>quite complicated, so I thought there would be an easier way.

No, on most systems there is no easier way than the obvious one of
seeing where a succession of ".."s gets you.