About current working directory

Hello everyone,


If I create a file (whose name is "foo") using constant string "./foo", I am wondering under which directory should file foo be created, i.e. what/where is the current '.' directory? I think it should be current working directory, which could be get and set by Linux API getcwd/chdir?

For example, if I use Linux API chdir to change current working directory to /temp, the file foo will be created under /temp. Is my understanding correct?


thanks in advance,
George

Yes.

For easy things like this, you should test them out yourself. Learning by practice helps you to remember things. :)

Thanks MacGyver! In the past, I am confused about two concepts,

1. current working direcroty -- in which the man page of chdir mentioned always;
2. . direcroty

Are they the same thing?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MacGyver

Yes.

For easy things like this, you should test them out yourself. Learning by practice helps you to remember things. :)

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regards,
George

[QUOTE=George2;640522]Thanks MacGyver! In the past, I am confused about two concepts,

1. current working direcroty -- in which the man page of chdir mentioned always;
2. . direcroty

Are they the same thing?

The '.' directory is a reference from a directory to itself. It's like the word "myself." The cwd is simply the directory where your program is considered to "be at." They are not quite the same thing, although '.' on its own means the current dir.

But the dot can be used in other ways (not particularly productive ways, but nonetheless). For instance, if /x/y/z is a valid path, then /x/././y/z is a valid path, and so is /x/y/z/././., etc. In practice, the only USEFUL thing to do with dot is start with it, as in "./foo". But a bare filename (with no slashes) also means "in the current directory," so there is really no NEED for dot, at least at a programmatic level.