jbw@bucsf.bu.edu (Joe Wells) (10/17/90)
In article <3554@skye.ed.ac.uk> richard@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) writes:
Why does getpwd() have to chdir()?
In most Unixes, there's a kernel limit of 1024 characters in a pathname.
If your current directory were located deep enough in the filesystem,
getcwd() couldn't make it all the way up to the root without chdir()-ing.
Of course, you understand how unlikely this is, but it is necessary for
the algorithm to be correct.
--
Joe Wells <jbw@bu.edu>richard@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) (10/19/90)
In article <JBW.90Oct16175441@bucsf.bu.edu> jbw@bucsf.bu.edu (Joe Wells) writes: >In most Unixes, there's a kernel limit of 1024 characters in a pathname. >If your current directory were located deep enough in the filesystem, >getcwd() couldn't make it all the way up to the root without chdir()-ing. In this case, the returned pathname is unlikely to be very useful! -- Richard -- Richard Tobin, JANET: R.Tobin@uk.ac.ed AI Applications Institute, ARPA: R.Tobin%uk.ac.ed@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Edinburgh University. UUCP: ...!ukc!ed.ac.uk!R.Tobin