> Wow, that's quite a comprehensive answer, many thanks :)

> The problem I'm struggling with is this:

> """
> There is no way in your script to detect if it was loaded via a
> symlink.  It always behaves as if it was loaded from its actual real
> file location.
> """

> I'm not too worried about env-var hijacking, so $PWD is ok for my
> current needs (this isn't an app for release or for running on the
> open Internet or anything like that).  Besides, that's what the pwd
> command does as well (with the additional step of checking that the
> resulting inode is the same one as ".").

> Thanks again for your help, I think there just isn't really a good way
> to do this.  As Mihai said, I probably need a different solution to my
> problem, although I'm still looking for a good one.

> Kevin

> On Feb 27, 8:49 pm, Isaac Schlueter <i...@izs.me> wrote:
>> Another thing: if you're going to be realpathing a lot, and don't
>> expect the file system to change out from under you while you do, you
>> can pass a "cache" object to fs.realpath, and it will use that to
>> avoid doing unnecessarily repetitive lstat calls.  Check out how it's
>> used in lib/module.js.

>> --i

>> On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 12:48, Isaac Schlueter <i...@izs.me> wrote:
>> > To get the current working directory in node, use process.cwd().  The
>> > PWD environ is not reliable.

>> >    PWD=pwned node -e 'process.env.PWD'  // does this output the
>> > current working dir?

>> > Even in shell scripts, "$PWD" is not as good as "$(pwd)" for this
>> > reason.  Do not rely on it.

>> > If you want the real path when running in a directory path that
>> > contains symlinks, use:

>> >    var fs = require('fs')
>> >    fs.realpath(p, function (er, real) { ... })
>> >    // or
>> >    var real = fs.realpathSync(p) // throws on error

>> > If you want to know the dir that a script lives in, check the
>> > __dirname free variable.  It should already be realpathed.

>> >    var scriptLivesInThisDir = __dirname

>> > To get the real path of the cwd, you could do:

>> >    fs.realpath(process.cwd(), function (er, real) { ... })
>> >    // or
>> >    var real = fs.realpathSync(process.cwd())

>> > There is no way in your script to detect if it was loaded via a
>> > symlink.  It always behaves as if it was loaded from its actual real
>> > file location.

>> > To find a file that exists in the same folder as your script, you can
>> > use path.resolve() against the __dirname.

>> >    var tsFile = path.resolve(__dirname, '.timestamp')

>> > To find it in the cwd, you can do:

>> >    var ts = path.resolve(process.cwd(), '.timestamp')

>> > To find it in the real path of the cwd, you can do:

>> >    var ts = path.resolve(fs.realpathSync(process.cwd()), '.timestamp')
>> >    // or, equivalently:
>> >    var ts = fs.realpathSync(path.resolve(process.cwd(), '.timestamp'))

>> > Does that answer your question(s)?

>> > --i

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