what does "unadorned coreutils" mean

hahacc · 01-14-2013, 01:16 AM

Hi guys,
I'm reading GNU docs about coreutils. I've found many utils have the following caveat:

Code:

Due to shell aliases and built-in pwd functions, 
using an unadorned pwd interactively or in a script may get you different functionality than that described here. 
Invoke it via env (i.e., env pwd ...) to avoid interference from the shell.

So what does this mean? Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks in advance

hahacc · 01-14-2013, 02:55 AM

Ok guys I know this now.
pwd exists both in shell aliases and coreutils, so to avoid confusion, we need use env pwd to avoid interference from the shell.

gnashley · 01-14-2013, 09:01 AM

Or use the absolute path. You can see which one is used with `type pw`. If the shell includes a 'pw' then that will be used -even if `which pw` shows /bin/pw or such path.