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authorMichael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>2007-04-12 22:42:49 +0000
committerMichael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>2007-04-12 22:42:49 +0000
commitc13182efa3b3d77f2563034c8212c0ca798243ca (patch)
treee7652b26018b7c22cd6a4e4b41404dfaab911303 /man3/getcwd.3
parent4174ff5658082832c2ed511720f18881b3a80a34 (diff)
Wrapped long lines, wrapped at sentence boundaries; stripped trailing
white space.
Diffstat (limited to 'man3/getcwd.3')
-rw-r--r--man3/getcwd.331
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 13 deletions
diff --git a/man3/getcwd.3 b/man3/getcwd.3
index daad955a..19f826f0 100644
--- a/man3/getcwd.3
+++ b/man3/getcwd.3
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
.\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
.\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
.\" permission notice identical to this one.
-.\"
+.\"
.\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
.\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no
.\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
.\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
.\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
.\" professionally.
-.\"
+.\"
.\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
.\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
.\" License.
@@ -76,14 +76,15 @@ allocates the buffer dynamically using
.BR malloc ()
if
.I buf
-is NULL on call.
+is NULL on call.
In this case, the allocated buffer has the length
.I size
unless
.I size
is zero, when
.I buf
-is allocated as big as necessary. It is possible (and, indeed,
+is allocated as big as necessary.
+It is possible (and, indeed,
advisable) to
.BR free ()
the buffers if they have been obtained this way.
@@ -91,7 +92,8 @@ the buffers if they have been obtained this way.
.BR get_current_dir_name (),
will
.BR malloc (3)
-an array big enough to hold the current directory name. If the environment
+an array big enough to hold the current directory name.
+If the environment
variable
.B PWD
is set, and its value is correct, then that value will be returned.
@@ -99,7 +101,7 @@ is set, and its value is correct, then that value will be returned.
.BR getwd (),
does not
.BR malloc (3)
-any memory.
+any memory.
The
.I buf
argument should be a pointer to an array at least
@@ -112,7 +114,7 @@ bytes of the actual pathname.
Note that
.B PATH_MAX
need not be a compile-time constant; it may depend on the filesystem
-and may even be unlimited.
+and may even be unlimited.
For portability and security reasons, use of
.BR getwd ()
is deprecated.
@@ -122,20 +124,21 @@ on failure with
.I errno
set accordingly, and
.I buf
-on success. The contents of the array pointed to by
+on success.
+The contents of the array pointed to by
.IR buf
is undefined on error.
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EACCES
-Permission to read or search a component of the filename was denied.
+Permission to read or search a component of the filename was denied.
.TP
.B EFAULT
.IR buf
points to a bad address.
.TP
.B EINVAL
-The
+The
.IR size
argument is zero and
.IR buf
@@ -156,19 +159,21 @@ is a system call (since 2.1.92).
On older systems it would query
.IR /proc/self/cwd .
If both system call and proc file system are missing, a
-generic implementation is called. Only in that case can
+generic implementation is called.
+Only in that case can
these calls fail under Linux with
.BR EACCES .
.LP
These functions are often used to save the location of the current working
-directory for the purpose of returning to it later. Opening the current
+directory for the purpose of returning to it later.
+Opening the current
directory (".") and calling
.BR fchdir (2)
to return is usually a faster and more reliable alternative when sufficiently
many file descriptors are available, especially on platforms other than Linux.
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
.BR getcwd()
-conforms to POSIX.1-2001.
+conforms to POSIX.1-2001.
.BR getwd()
is present in POSIX.1-2001, but marked LEGACY.
.BR get_current_dir_name ()