R: Get or Set Working Directory

getwd {base} | R Documentation

## Get or Set Working Directory

### Description

`getwd` returns an absolute filepath representing the current working directory of the R process; `setwd(dir)` is used to set the working directory to `dir`.

### Usage

    getwd()
    setwd(dir)

### Arguments

`dir` | A character string: tilde expansion will be done.

### Value

`getwd` returns a character string or `NULL` if the working directory is not available. On Windows the path returned will use `/` as the path separator and be encoded in UTF-8. The path will not have a trailing `/` unless it is the root directory (of a drive or share on Windows).

`setwd` returns the current directory before the change, invisibly and with the same conventions as `getwd`. It will give an error if it does not succeed (including if it is not implemented).

### Note

Note that the return value is said to be an absolute filepath: there can be more than one representation of the path to a directory and on some OSes the value returned can differ after changing directories and changing back to the same directory (for example if symbolic links have been traversed).

### See Also

`list.files` for the contents of a directory.

`normalizePath` for a ‘canonical’ path name.

### Examples

    (WD <- getwd())
    if (!is.null(WD)) setwd(WD)

[Package base version 3.5.1 Index]