SAMS Teach Yourself Unix in 10 Minutes

Using the pwd Command

For users of Windows or MS-DOS, one command you would commonly type at a command prompt is dir. This command (which stands for directory) will list the contents of the directory you are currently in; if you specify the entire path statement to another directory, the command will also let you see the contents of that directory. In Unix, the pwd (present working directory) command asks your machine to tell you what directory you're currently in. The way that Unix displays this information is different than in Windows. For example, in Windows, the path C:\Windows\Temp tells you that there is a folder (directory) called Temp in a folder called Windows, and the Windows folder is currently on the C:\ drive of the operating system. ...