Shell script current directory?

Most answers get you the current path and are context sensitive. In order to run your script from any directory, use the below snippet.

DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "$0" )" && pwd )"

By switching directories in a subshell, we can then call pwd and get the correct path of the script regardless of context.

You can then use $DIR as "$DIR/path/to/file"


The current(initial) directory of shell script is the directory from which you have called the script.


As already mentioned, the location will be where the script was called from. If you wish to have the script reference it's installed location, it's quite simple. Below is a snippet that will print the PWD and the installed directory:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Script executed from: ${PWD}"

BASEDIR=$(dirname $0)
echo "Script location: ${BASEDIR}"