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[–] 27 points 1 year ago (12 children)

isn't it just 'present working directory'?

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    No. “Print working directory” is the command to print (display) the “cwd” (current working directory).

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That's what I've always known it as

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    I mean it’s basically the same thing but the command itself means “print”; it’s a damn old command and it probably predates using screens for terminals (used to be printers); which is why all the parts of Linux (ugh, and GNU of course) that came from Unix ideas came from that age.

    You literally sat in front of a typewriter that would respond to you. Wild.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    It absolutely can be either and is not so clear cut as responders are claiming.

    Weather its 'print working directory' or 'present working directory' depends on the source you ask, and ultimately they have the same meaning so it really doesn't matter which you use.

    Whenever pwd is used as a variable, 'present' is more logical than 'print'.

    https://qmacro.org/blog/posts/2020/11/08/the-myriad-meanings-of-pwd-in-unix-systems/

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