Working directory

In computing, the working directory of a process is a directory of a hierarchical file system, if any, dynamically associated with the process. It is sometimes called the current working directory (CWD), e.g. the BSD getcwd function, or just current directory. When a process refers to a file using a path that is a relative path, such as a path on a Unix-like system that does not begin with a / (forward slash) or a path on Windows that does not begin with a \ (backward slash), the path is interpreted as relative to the process's working directory. So, for example a process on a Unix-like system with working directory /rabbit-shoes that attempts to create the file foo.txt will end up creating the file /rabbit-shoes/foo.txt.