Current directory

Not the same as the home folder

Home is where you start. The current directory is where you are now — they are the same only until your first `cd`, and most confusing errors come from assuming they still match.

Where it bites

Every relative command is resolved from here, so the identical command succeeds in one folder and fails in the next. When something behaves inexplicably, `pwd` answers the question before any other debugging does.

In practice

$ pwd

Related terms