Shell: Save value in a variable, not the command

Question

I'd like to save my current directory into a value.

I do it like this

dir=`dirname $0`

But when I now change the directory and use this variable, it seems that the expression gets evaluated anew.

Do you know how I can store it's value in the variable, not the expression itself?

dogbane · Answer 1 · 2011-04-18 07:46:17Z

up vote 1 down vote accepted

This looks ok to me. The expression will not get evaluated every time. Try echo $dir to see the value of the dir variable.

answered Apr 18 '11 at 7:46

dogbane
1,455210

	The expression evaluated to `.`. I've now changed the command to `pwd`. – New Talk Apr 18 '11 at 8:01
	What might also be useful sometimes is `readlink -f` - Don't be fooled by the name/man page, it works on files/directories. – PriceChild Apr 18 '11 at 8:30

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