Linux / Unix: Shell Script Find Out In Which Directory Script File Resides

Author: Vivek Gite Last updated: April 1, 2017 11 comments

I need to find out in which directory my bash script resides so that I can read config file called .backup .ignore .target. For example, if my script resides in >/home/foo/script.sh, I need to read /home/foo/.{backup,ignore,target} files. How do I find out the current directory location and shell script directory location in Bash running on Linux or Unix like operating systems?

Tutorial details
Difficulty	Easy (rss)
Root privileges	No
Requirements	None
Time	N/A

You can use any one of the following method to find out the portion of pathname:

basename command – Display filename portion of pathname.
dirname command – Display directory portion of pathname.
Bash parameter substitution.
$0 expands to the name of the shell or shell script.

Examples: Shell script find out which directory the script file resides

The following example display directory path or portion of /home/nixcraft/scripts/foo.sh:

dirname /home/nixcraft/scripts/foo.sh

Sample outputs:

/home/nixcraft/scripts

The following line sets the shell variable i to /home/nixcraft/scripts:

i=`dirname /home/nixcraft/scripts/foo.sh`
echo "$i"

i=$(dirname /home/nixcraft/scripts/foo.sh)
echo "$i"

In bash script use $0 instead of /home/nixcraft/scripts/foo.sh:

#!/bin/bash
script="$0"
basename="$(dirname $script)"
 
echo "Script name $script resides in $basename directory."

Sample outputs:

Script name /tmp/test.sh resides in /tmp directory.

Using bash shell ${var%pattern} syntax

To Remove from shortest rear (end) pattern use the following syntax:

var=${path%/*}

For example:

x="/Users/nixcraft/scripts/bar.sh"
echo "${x%/*}"
y="${x%/*}"
echo "$y"

An updated version of the above script:

#!/bin/bash
# Purpose : Linux / Unix shell script find out which directory this script file resides
# Author : nixCraft <http://www.cyberciti.biz> under GPL v2.x+
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
script="$0"
basename="${script%/*}"
config1="${basename}/.backup"
config2="${basename}/.ignore"
config3="${basename}/.target"
 
echo "Script name $script resides in $basename directory."
echo "Reading config file $config1 $config2 $config3, please wait..."

Run it as:
$ chmod +x /tmp/test.sh $ /tmp/test.sh
Sample outputs:

Fig.01 Sample run from test.sh

A note about finding physical or real path

You may not get a real physical path and real path may be a symbolic link. To get physical path use realpath command. The realpath command uses the realpath() function to resolve all symbolic links, extra / characters and references to /./ and /../ in path. This is useful for shell scripting and security related applications.

Another recommended option is to use the readlink command to display value of a symbolic link or canonical file name:

#!/bin/bash
# Purpose : Linux / Unix shell script find out which directory this script file resides
# Author : nixCraft <http://www.cyberciti.biz> under GPL v2.x+
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
## Who am i? ##
## Get real path ##
_script="$(readlink -f ${BASH_SOURCE[0]})"
 
## Delete last component from $_script ##
_mydir="$(dirname $_script)"
 
## Delete /path/to/dir/ component from $_script ##
_myfile="$(basename $_script)"
echo "Script : $_script"
echo "Directory portion of $_script : $_mydir"
echo "Filename portion of $_script : $_myfile"

Save and close the file. Run it as follows:

./demo.bash
cd /home/vivek/
../../tmp/demo.bash
/tmp/demo.bash

Sample outputs:

Fig.02: Finding real path

Category	List of Unix and Linux commands
File Management	cat
Firewall	Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04
Network Utilities	dig • host • ip • nmap
OpenVPN	CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04
Package Manager	apk • apt
Processes Management	bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time
Searching	grep • whereis • which
User Information	groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w
WireGuard VPN	Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04

11 comments… add one

Russ Thompson Aug 5, 2013 @ 0:40

i found aund used the function below. This should be included in the script itself.

getScriptPath() {
    if [ -d ${0%/*} ]
    then
        abspath=$(cd ${0%/*} && echo $PWD/${0##*/})
        # to get the path only - not the script name - add
        pathOnly=`dirname "$abspath"`
    else
        progdir=`dirname $0`
        cd $progdir
        pathOnly=$PWD
    fi

    echo $pathOnly;
    return
}

Further down in the script I can use $(getScriptPath) as variable, such as

mysql database <$(getScriptPath)/query.sql

Hope this helps:

Reply Link

🐧 nixCraft Aug 12, 2013 @ 11:40

Russ, I appreciate that you are sharing your code with us.

Reply Link

Mahdi Aug 5, 2013 @ 6:35

Thank you for this!

Reply Link
Michel Nicolas Aug 6, 2013 @ 10:46

Hello,

The problem is that method won’t give your the absolute path if it is started with the relative one.
For example, if my script is launched with ./test.sh I won’t know from the script where am I really residing in the FS.

So the response is :
abspath=$(readlink -f $0)

Then you can do any basename, dirname an other path manipulation on it.

Reply Link
- 🐧 nixCraft Aug 12, 2013 @ 11:41
  
  Thanks for the heads up. The faq has been updated. I appreciate your post.
  
  Reply Link
Chris F.A. Johnson Aug 18, 2013 @ 23:17

If a script needs to know where it is located, it is badly designed.

Reply Link
- Michel Nicolas Aug 19, 2013 @ 5:04
  
  Chris,
  
  Can you tell me why would it be badly designed? Jugement without deep knowledge about the facts are useless.
  
  Nicolas
  
  Reply Link
  - Russ Thompson Oct 16, 2013 @ 15:48
    
    I feel if a script has to be edited when moved from directory to directory to operate correctly it is badly designed.
    
    Reply Link
    - Chris F.A. Johnson Oct 16, 2013 @ 18:15
      
      If a script has to be moved from directory to directory, it is badly designed. Scripts should always be placed in a directory in your PATH variable, so they can be called from anywhere.
      
      Reply Link

Latchezar Tzvetkoff Oct 16, 2013 @ 12:55

readlink -f $0 won’t work on Mac OS X.
A nice one-liner would be

SCRIPT_PATH=$(cd $(dirname ${0}) && pwd)

It doesn’t resolve the real path, though. For this you’ll need an OS check or something…

SCRIPT_PATH=$(cd $(dirname ${0}) && pwd)
echo $SCRIPT_PATH
if [[ ${OSTYPE} = darwin* ]]; then
	TEMP=`readlink ${SCRIPT_PATH}`
	echo $TEMP
	SCRIPT_PATH=${TEMP:-${SCRIPT_PATH}}
else
	SCRIPT_PATH=`readlink -f ${SCRIPT_PATH}`
fi

Note that OS X’s readlink is not reliable.

Reply Link

retro Apr 1, 2017 @ 6:24

What about:

#!/bin/bash
echo "File name: $BASH_SOURCE"
echo "Dir: $(dirname $BASH_SOURCE)"

Reply Link

Linux / Unix: Shell Script Find Out In Which Directory Script File Resides

Examples: Shell script find out which directory the script file resides

Using bash shell ${var%pattern} syntax

A note about finding physical or real path

See also