How do you find the Directory of the open Shell Script File?

[x-D]

Say if I have a Shell Script, and it sets up a program that can be downloaded, so the file could be anywhere. How to I (in Shell, or some other means), get the directory of the Current Shell Script which is open (the one that sets up the program)?

Cheers for any help....
x-D

[hyper2hottie]

Do you want:

pwd

Print working directory

[apmcd47]

Say if I have a Shell Script, and it sets up a program that can be downloaded, so the file could be anywhere. How to I (in Shell, or some other means), get the directory of the Current Shell Script which is open (the one that sets up the program)?

You have the $PWD environment variable and also the builtin pwd command and /bin/pwd. Take your pick. If you want the working directory in which the shell script is invoked because you intend to change the directory try

startDir=$PWD 

somewhere near the start of your script (ie before the first cd command).

Andrew

[ofnuts]

$PWD gives you the current directory, which isn't the directory where the shell script file is (can be invoked with an explicit path, or be somewhere in the PATH). The directory where the script comes from is obtained by:

mydir=$(dirname $0)

In other words:

#! /bin/bash

me=$0
mydir=$(dirname $0)

echo "Me: $me"
echo "My dir: $mydir"

[x-D]

So if I wanted to use this information to copy the folder the shell script was in, to another folder how would I go about doing so?

[Smart Viking]

cp -r $mydir /location/dir

[x-D]

cp -r $mydir /location/dir

Spot on mate . I'm so bad at shell, just need to know this little thing for a small script. Then how does that paste into another folder?

[x-D]

$PWD gives you the current directory, which isn't the directory where the shell script file is (can be invoked with an explicit path, or be somewhere in the PATH). The directory where the script comes from is obtained by:

mydir=$(dirname $0)

In other words:

#! /bin/bash

me=$0
mydir=$(dirname $0)

echo "Me: $me"
echo "My dir: $mydir"

Hey, I was getting errors, so I tried echo "hello: $mydir" - then it just printed out a plain line - as if there was no Directory?

[ofnuts]

In many cases $mydir is just a mere dot: ".".

[x-D]

In many cases $mydir is just a mere dot: ".".

So, I don't understand, could you walk me through how to set it up, so that the folder in which the shell script is located, is copied to a different folder?