Why pwd does not accept long options like --physical?
When I display the manual for pwd command, it says that long options like --physical are supported
$ man pwd
PWD(1) User Commands PWD(1)
NAME
pwd - print name of current/working directory
SYNOPSIS
pwd [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION
Print the full filename of the current working directory.
-L, --logical
use PWD from environment, even if it contains symlinks
-P, --physical
avoid all symlinks
However, it fails when I type the following
$ pwd --physical
-bash: pwd: --: invalid option
pwd: usage: pwd [-LP]
Why are long options not working for me?
I'm using RHEL 6.4. No alias for pwd is configured. Looks like it's standard pwd:
$ which pwd
/bin/pwd
bash rhel pwd
edited Jan 21 at 15:13
wjandrea
478413
asked Jan 21 at 13:47
Michal KordasMichal Kordas
1668
add a comment |
When I display the manual for pwd command, it says that long options like --physical are supported
$ man pwd
PWD(1) User Commands PWD(1)
NAME
pwd - print name of current/working directory
SYNOPSIS
pwd [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION
Print the full filename of the current working directory.
-L, --logical
use PWD from environment, even if it contains symlinks
-P, --physical
avoid all symlinks
However, it fails when I type the following
$ pwd --physical
-bash: pwd: --: invalid option
pwd: usage: pwd [-LP]
Why are long options not working for me?
I'm using RHEL 6.4. No alias for pwd is configured. Looks like it's standard pwd:
$ which pwd
/bin/pwd
bash rhel pwd
edited Jan 21 at 15:13
wjandrea
478413
asked Jan 21 at 13:47
Michal KordasMichal Kordas
1668
1
The manual page is for a standalone utility which is not part of bash.
– Thomas Dickey
Jan 21 at 13:50
7
Usetypeinstead ofwhich, sincewhichonly shows commands, whiletypeshows keywords, builtins, aliases, functions, and commands (and hashed command paths). For more details see Why not use “which”? What to use then?
– wjandrea
Jan 21 at 14:45
1
In my systemman pwdhas following note:your shell may have its own version of pwd, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supportsat the bottom ofDESCRIPTIONsection.
– Nykakin
Jan 22 at 14:18
add a comment |
When I display the manual for pwd command, it says that long options like --physical are supported
$ man pwd
PWD(1) User Commands PWD(1)
NAME
pwd - print name of current/working directory
SYNOPSIS
pwd [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION
Print the full filename of the current working directory.
-L, --logical
use PWD from environment, even if it contains symlinks
-P, --physical
avoid all symlinks
However, it fails when I type the following
$ pwd --physical
-bash: pwd: --: invalid option
pwd: usage: pwd [-LP]
Why are long options not working for me?
I'm using RHEL 6.4. No alias for pwd is configured. Looks like it's standard pwd:
$ which pwd
/bin/pwd
bash rhel pwd
edited Jan 21 at 15:13
wjandrea
478413
asked Jan 21 at 13:47
Michal KordasMichal Kordas
1668
When I display the manual for pwd command, it says that long options like --physical are supported
$ man pwd
PWD(1) User Commands PWD(1)
NAME
pwd - print name of current/working directory
SYNOPSIS
pwd [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION
Print the full filename of the current working directory.
-L, --logical
use PWD from environment, even if it contains symlinks
-P, --physical
avoid all symlinks
However, it fails when I type the following
$ pwd --physical
-bash: pwd: --: invalid option
pwd: usage: pwd [-LP]
Why are long options not working for me?
I'm using RHEL 6.4. No alias for pwd is configured. Looks like it's standard pwd:
$ which pwd
/bin/pwd
bash rhel pwd
bash rhel pwd
edited Jan 21 at 15:13
wjandrea
478413
asked Jan 21 at 13:47
Michal KordasMichal Kordas
1668
edited Jan 21 at 15:13
wjandrea
478413
asked Jan 21 at 13:47
Michal KordasMichal Kordas
1668
edited Jan 21 at 15:13
wjandrea
478413
edited Jan 21 at 15:13
wjandrea
478413
edited Jan 21 at 15:13
wjandrea
478413
478413
asked Jan 21 at 13:47
Michal KordasMichal Kordas
1668
asked Jan 21 at 13:47
Michal KordasMichal Kordas
1668
asked Jan 21 at 13:47
Michal KordasMichal Kordas
1668
1668
1
The manual page is for a standalone utility which is not part of bash.
– Thomas Dickey
Jan 21 at 13:50
7
Usetypeinstead ofwhich, sincewhichonly shows commands, whiletypeshows keywords, builtins, aliases, functions, and commands (and hashed command paths). For more details see Why not use “which”? What to use then?
– wjandrea
Jan 21 at 14:45
1
In my systemman pwdhas following note:your shell may have its own version of pwd, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supportsat the bottom ofDESCRIPTIONsection.
– Nykakin
Jan 22 at 14:18
add a comment |
1
The manual page is for a standalone utility which is not part of bash.
– Thomas Dickey
Jan 21 at 13:50
7
Usetypeinstead ofwhich, sincewhichonly shows commands, whiletypeshows keywords, builtins, aliases, functions, and commands (and hashed command paths). For more details see Why not use “which”? What to use then?
– wjandrea
Jan 21 at 14:45
1
In my systemman pwdhas following note:your shell may have its own version of pwd, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supportsat the bottom ofDESCRIPTIONsection.
– Nykakin
Jan 22 at 14:18
1
1
The manual page is for a standalone utility which is not part of bash.
– Thomas Dickey
Jan 21 at 13:50
The manual page is for a standalone utility which is not part of bash.
– Thomas Dickey
Jan 21 at 13:50
7
7
Use
type instead of which, since which only shows commands, while type shows keywords, builtins, aliases, functions, and commands (and hashed command paths). For more details see Why not use “which”? What to use then?– wjandrea
Jan 21 at 14:45
Use
type instead of which, since which only shows commands, while type shows keywords, builtins, aliases, functions, and commands (and hashed command paths). For more details see Why not use “which”? What to use then?– wjandrea
Jan 21 at 14:45
1
1
In my system
man pwd has following note: your shell may have its own version of pwd, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supports at the bottom of DESCRIPTION section.– Nykakin
Jan 22 at 14:18
In my system
man pwd has following note: your shell may have its own version of pwd, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supports at the bottom of DESCRIPTION section.– Nykakin
Jan 22 at 14:18
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
bash has a built-in command pwd which is what you are using when you simply type pwd into your shell.
To get the pwd as described by the manpage, you need force use of the external command. You can do this by specifying the full path to the executable (/bin/pwd in your case) or by prepending env before the line: env pwd, which starts the env command which can be used to add settings to the environment (but which is not done here) and then env starts the command specified. As env doesn't have a builtin pwd, the "real" /bin/pwd is executed.
The advantage of the builtin pwd in bash is that bash keeps track of the current directory, so getting the value is at zero cost, whereas the external command needs to search up through the filesystem to determine the path, which is much more IO intensive.
answered Jan 21 at 13:52
wurtelwurtel
10.4k11526
4
That's not how the external command actually works. unix.stackexchange.com/a/413225/5132
– JdeBP
Jan 21 at 16:59
BTW: You can also disable the shell builtin (at least in bash) byenable -n pwd
– derobert
Jan 21 at 20:18
@JdeBP It used to be last time I looked (a long time ago :-) ); and whereas it now uses thegetcwd()system call, the kernel still traverses the filesystem, which is easier to do in kernel space due to access to relevant data structures, As the linked answer states: "However, note that even on FreeBSD and those other operating systems the kernel does not keep track of the working directory with a string."
– wurtel
Jan 22 at 9:03
add a comment |
That manpage documents /bin/pwd, but when you run pwd you’re using the shell built-in; see the output of
type pwd
Your shell’s built-in pwd doesn’t support long options (see your shell’s documentation; since you’re using Bash, help pwd will provide a summary).
answered Jan 21 at 13:50
Stephen KittStephen Kitt
168k24379457
add a comment |
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2 Answers
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2 Answers
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bash has a built-in command pwd which is what you are using when you simply type pwd into your shell.
To get the pwd as described by the manpage, you need force use of the external command. You can do this by specifying the full path to the executable (/bin/pwd in your case) or by prepending env before the line: env pwd, which starts the env command which can be used to add settings to the environment (but which is not done here) and then env starts the command specified. As env doesn't have a builtin pwd, the "real" /bin/pwd is executed.
The advantage of the builtin pwd in bash is that bash keeps track of the current directory, so getting the value is at zero cost, whereas the external command needs to search up through the filesystem to determine the path, which is much more IO intensive.
answered Jan 21 at 13:52
wurtelwurtel
10.4k11526
4
That's not how the external command actually works. unix.stackexchange.com/a/413225/5132
– JdeBP
Jan 21 at 16:59
BTW: You can also disable the shell builtin (at least in bash) byenable -n pwd
– derobert
Jan 21 at 20:18
@JdeBP It used to be last time I looked (a long time ago :-) ); and whereas it now uses thegetcwd()system call, the kernel still traverses the filesystem, which is easier to do in kernel space due to access to relevant data structures, As the linked answer states: "However, note that even on FreeBSD and those other operating systems the kernel does not keep track of the working directory with a string."
– wurtel
Jan 22 at 9:03
add a comment |
bash has a built-in command pwd which is what you are using when you simply type pwd into your shell.
To get the pwd as described by the manpage, you need force use of the external command. You can do this by specifying the full path to the executable (/bin/pwd in your case) or by prepending env before the line: env pwd, which starts the env command which can be used to add settings to the environment (but which is not done here) and then env starts the command specified. As env doesn't have a builtin pwd, the "real" /bin/pwd is executed.
The advantage of the builtin pwd in bash is that bash keeps track of the current directory, so getting the value is at zero cost, whereas the external command needs to search up through the filesystem to determine the path, which is much more IO intensive.
answered Jan 21 at 13:52
wurtelwurtel
10.4k11526
4
That's not how the external command actually works. unix.stackexchange.com/a/413225/5132
– JdeBP
Jan 21 at 16:59
BTW: You can also disable the shell builtin (at least in bash) byenable -n pwd
– derobert
Jan 21 at 20:18
@JdeBP It used to be last time I looked (a long time ago :-) ); and whereas it now uses thegetcwd()system call, the kernel still traverses the filesystem, which is easier to do in kernel space due to access to relevant data structures, As the linked answer states: "However, note that even on FreeBSD and those other operating systems the kernel does not keep track of the working directory with a string."
– wurtel
Jan 22 at 9:03
add a comment |
bash has a built-in command pwd which is what you are using when you simply type pwd into your shell.
To get the pwd as described by the manpage, you need force use of the external command. You can do this by specifying the full path to the executable (/bin/pwd in your case) or by prepending env before the line: env pwd, which starts the env command which can be used to add settings to the environment (but which is not done here) and then env starts the command specified. As env doesn't have a builtin pwd, the "real" /bin/pwd is executed.
The advantage of the builtin pwd in bash is that bash keeps track of the current directory, so getting the value is at zero cost, whereas the external command needs to search up through the filesystem to determine the path, which is much more IO intensive.
answered Jan 21 at 13:52
wurtelwurtel
10.4k11526
bash has a built-in command pwd which is what you are using when you simply type pwd into your shell.
To get the pwd as described by the manpage, you need force use of the external command. You can do this by specifying the full path to the executable (/bin/pwd in your case) or by prepending env before the line: env pwd, which starts the env command which can be used to add settings to the environment (but which is not done here) and then env starts the command specified. As env doesn't have a builtin pwd, the "real" /bin/pwd is executed.
The advantage of the builtin pwd in bash is that bash keeps track of the current directory, so getting the value is at zero cost, whereas the external command needs to search up through the filesystem to determine the path, which is much more IO intensive.
answered Jan 21 at 13:52
wurtelwurtel
10.4k11526
answered Jan 21 at 13:52
wurtelwurtel
10.4k11526
answered Jan 21 at 13:52
wurtelwurtel
10.4k11526
answered Jan 21 at 13:52
wurtelwurtel
10.4k11526
10.4k11526
4
That's not how the external command actually works. unix.stackexchange.com/a/413225/5132
– JdeBP
Jan 21 at 16:59
BTW: You can also disable the shell builtin (at least in bash) byenable -n pwd
– derobert
Jan 21 at 20:18
@JdeBP It used to be last time I looked (a long time ago :-) ); and whereas it now uses thegetcwd()system call, the kernel still traverses the filesystem, which is easier to do in kernel space due to access to relevant data structures, As the linked answer states: "However, note that even on FreeBSD and those other operating systems the kernel does not keep track of the working directory with a string."
– wurtel
Jan 22 at 9:03
add a comment |
4
That's not how the external command actually works. unix.stackexchange.com/a/413225/5132
– JdeBP
Jan 21 at 16:59
BTW: You can also disable the shell builtin (at least in bash) byenable -n pwd
– derobert
Jan 21 at 20:18
@JdeBP It used to be last time I looked (a long time ago :-) ); and whereas it now uses thegetcwd()system call, the kernel still traverses the filesystem, which is easier to do in kernel space due to access to relevant data structures, As the linked answer states: "However, note that even on FreeBSD and those other operating systems the kernel does not keep track of the working directory with a string."
– wurtel
Jan 22 at 9:03
4
4
That's not how the external command actually works. unix.stackexchange.com/a/413225/5132
– JdeBP
Jan 21 at 16:59
That's not how the external command actually works. unix.stackexchange.com/a/413225/5132
– JdeBP
Jan 21 at 16:59
BTW: You can also disable the shell builtin (at least in bash) by
enable -n pwd– derobert
Jan 21 at 20:18
BTW: You can also disable the shell builtin (at least in bash) by
enable -n pwd– derobert
Jan 21 at 20:18
@JdeBP It used to be last time I looked (a long time ago :-) ); and whereas it now uses the
getcwd() system call, the kernel still traverses the filesystem, which is easier to do in kernel space due to access to relevant data structures, As the linked answer states: "However, note that even on FreeBSD and those other operating systems the kernel does not keep track of the working directory with a string."– wurtel
Jan 22 at 9:03
@JdeBP It used to be last time I looked (a long time ago :-) ); and whereas it now uses the
getcwd() system call, the kernel still traverses the filesystem, which is easier to do in kernel space due to access to relevant data structures, As the linked answer states: "However, note that even on FreeBSD and those other operating systems the kernel does not keep track of the working directory with a string."– wurtel
Jan 22 at 9:03
add a comment |
That manpage documents /bin/pwd, but when you run pwd you’re using the shell built-in; see the output of
type pwd
Your shell’s built-in pwd doesn’t support long options (see your shell’s documentation; since you’re using Bash, help pwd will provide a summary).
answered Jan 21 at 13:50
Stephen KittStephen Kitt
168k24379457
add a comment |
That manpage documents /bin/pwd, but when you run pwd you’re using the shell built-in; see the output of
type pwd
Your shell’s built-in pwd doesn’t support long options (see your shell’s documentation; since you’re using Bash, help pwd will provide a summary).
answered Jan 21 at 13:50
Stephen KittStephen Kitt
168k24379457
add a comment |
That manpage documents /bin/pwd, but when you run pwd you’re using the shell built-in; see the output of
type pwd
Your shell’s built-in pwd doesn’t support long options (see your shell’s documentation; since you’re using Bash, help pwd will provide a summary).
answered Jan 21 at 13:50
Stephen KittStephen Kitt
168k24379457
That manpage documents /bin/pwd, but when you run pwd you’re using the shell built-in; see the output of
type pwd
Your shell’s built-in pwd doesn’t support long options (see your shell’s documentation; since you’re using Bash, help pwd will provide a summary).
answered Jan 21 at 13:50
Stephen KittStephen Kitt
168k24379457
edited Jan 21 at 14:56
answered Jan 21 at 13:50
Stephen KittStephen Kitt
168k24379457
answered Jan 21 at 13:50
Stephen KittStephen Kitt
168k24379457
answered Jan 21 at 13:50
Stephen KittStephen Kitt
168k24379457
168k24379457
add a comment |
add a comment |
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1
The manual page is for a standalone utility which is not part of bash.
– Thomas Dickey
Jan 21 at 13:50
7
Use
typeinstead ofwhich, sincewhichonly shows commands, whiletypeshows keywords, builtins, aliases, functions, and commands (and hashed command paths). For more details see Why not use “which”? What to use then?– wjandrea
Jan 21 at 14:45
1
In my system
man pwdhas following note:your shell may have its own version of pwd, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supportsat the bottom ofDESCRIPTIONsection.– Nykakin
Jan 22 at 14:18