Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!helios.ee.lbl.gov!epb2.lbl.gov!envbvs
From: envbvs@epb2.lbl.gov (Brian V. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: pwd
Message-ID: <4504@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 21 Dec 89 20:15:29 GMT
References: <265@zircon.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@helios.ee.lbl.gov
Reply-To: envbvs@epb2.lbl.gov (Brian V. Smith)
Organization: Lbl
Lines: 18
X-Local-Date: 21 Dec 89 12:15:29 PST

In article <265@zircon.UUCP>, davidb@Pacer.UUCP (David Barts) writes:
< 
< As numerous responses have told me, the system does not maintain
< an open file descriptor into the current working directory.  Rather,
< pwd works its way back up the tree by finding the i number of .
< and searching for the entry under .. whose i-number matches that
< of dot.  Special trickery is needed to handle mount points.
< 
< /bin/pwd is setuid to root so it can handle unreadable directories
< in the path.

This is not true in Ultrix - pwd will fail if it encounters an 
unreadable directory in the path. 

____________________________________
Brian V. Smith    (bvsmith@lbl.gov)
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
I don't speak for LBL, these non-opinions are all mine.