why the "open" command runs under the home directory?

Question

Under Mac OSX (Mountain Lion), I have a shell script "a":

#!/bin/bash
open -a Terminal b

which run another shell script "b" using Terminal:

echo `pwd`

Something interesting is that, no matter where my running scripts are located, the pwd command in "b" always returns the home directory.

Questions:

Why does this happen?
How to set the running environment to be the working instead home directory (ie, return the working directory when arriving at pwd)

Sorry, don't you think your question is more appropriate for unix.stackexchange.com? — Paolo, Aug 22 '13 at 22:18
possible duplicate of [Can a Bash script tell what directory it's stored in?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/59895/can-a-bash-script-tell-what-directory-its-stored-in) — Oli, Aug 22 '13 at 22:27

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 22 '13 at 22:24

I am a ubuntu Linux user but I'm pretty sure the cli is very similar for both. Anyways, I believe the default directory when you open a new terminal window is your home directory. Unless you change it within your settings. This is the likely reason for the pwd command in "b" printing your home directory.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '13 at 22:25

1

This will probably work in b:

echo $( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )

answered Aug 22 '13 at 22:25

Oli

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why the "open" command runs under the home directory?

2 Answers2