Linux / Unix: pwdx Command Examples

I am new Linux and Unix system administrator. How do I find the current working directory of a process or server on Linux or Unix-like system using shell prompt?

On Linux and Solairs Unix you can use pwdx comamnd to display the current working directory of each process.

1. lsof command
2. ps command
3. pgrep command

Purpose

Print the current working directory of each process.

Syntax

The basic syntax is as follows:

pwdx pid

OR

pwdx pid1 pid2 pid3

pwdx command examples

In this example, find out the working directory of a process called lighttpd. First, run ps command to find out PID of a process called lighttpd:
$ ps aux | grep {process-name}
$ ps aux | grep lighttpd
You can skip ps and grep combo and use pgrep command as follows for the same purpose:
$ pgrep lighttpd
Sample outputs:

2225

To display the current working directory of PID # 2225, enter:
$ sudo pwdx 2225
OR
# pwdx 2225
Sample outputs:

2225: /

Using /proc/ file system to find out the current working directory of a process

You can run the following command to get the same information:

pgrep processNameHere
ls -d  /proc/$PID/cwd
 
## if pid is 1313, try ##
ls -d  /proc/1313/cwd

Finding jail directory

For security concern certain process run inside the jail (see chroot command for more information). Here is an example of named (BIND DNS server) process running inside the jail:
# pgrep named
# pwdx 1617
# ls -d /proc/1617/cwd
Sample outputs:

In this example, output indicate that named process has root directory at /var/cache/bind location.

pwdx command options

From the command man page:

See also