Re: shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: Permission denied

[Chet Ramey]

sumeshps1@gmail.com wrote:

> LynnOS wrote:
> > root@Avct Linux-vserver:~# pwd
> > /root
> > root@Avct Linux-vserver:~# ls -ld /root
> > drwx------    3 root     root         4096 Jul  3 14:52 /root
> > root@Avct Linux-vserver:~# su lynn
> > *shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access
> > parent directories: Permission denied*
> > lynn@Avct Linux-vserver:/root$

This is not a bash problem.  You're in a directory which can be read and
searched only by root, and you're su'ing to another user.  That user
does not have permission to search the current directory, even to find
`..', so getcwd is going to fail.

You might be able to avoid the need for the getcwd call at startup by
exporting PWD, so the child shell can read it, but there aren't any
guarantees.

Chet

--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer

Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/