# Get Absolute Path (i.e., Current Working Directory) from Root



## rtwingfield (Feb 24, 2011)

A JavaScript instruction:


```
var path = document.location.pathname;
```

. . .embedded in a html file will assign a value to [font="Courier New"]path[/font], for example:


```
/htdocs/Photolib/ThisWeek/
```


What I need ( . . .not the server root) is the absolute path from the system root, e.g.:


```
/usr/local/www/vhosts/archaxis.net/htdocs/Photolib/ThisWeek/
```


Perl can do this:


```
use Cwd;
   my $path = getcwd;
```

. . .and return the assigned value for [font="Courier New"]$path[/font] as:


```
/usr/local/www/vhosts/archaxis.net/cgi-bin/perl
```

Note that the returned value of [font="Courier New"]$path[/font] is the directory of [font="Courier New"]cgi-bin[/font] where the Perl script resides . . .not what I need!

I have an application that needs to create subdirectories of a current working directory.   Also, a subdirectory could become a parent of a future subdirectory . . .and so on.   Each subdirectory will contain a [font="Courier New"]README.html[/font] file that is auto-executed by the Apache http server's display of the  directory's index list.  This html file contains some file manipulation functions, including one to create a new subdirectory.

I need to capture the path of the current directory containing an individual [font="Courier New"]README.html[/font] file, and pass the path as a parameter to a Perl script in  cgi-bin.   This Perl script will prompt the user for a user id., directory name, file permissions, etc.   Then the name for the new subdirectory specified by the user can be concatenated to the [font="Courier New"]$path[/font] string, and the new subdirectory can be created in the named subdirectory, e.g."


```
/usr/local/www/vhosts/archaxis.net/htdocs/Photolib/ThisWeek/[B]Tuesday[/B]
```

This seems like a simple thing to do . . .certainly within OS/400, Unix shell, etc., but I cannot find an example of a simple line of JavaScript code to produce the absolute path string as per Perl.

(I'm sure that I can write a half-page of code replete with regex'es, sed's, chomps, cat's, _ad nauseam_, but isn't there a simple way to do this?)

Suggestions will be greatly appreciated,  

Ron W.


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## Alt (Feb 24, 2011)

You cannot know full system path with JS.
Its client-side part of app, so client dont know where is server root (unless you give client $ENV{DOCUMENT_ROOT} from perl or php)


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## rtwingfield (Feb 24, 2011)

Yeah . . .after getting some sleep this morning, It finally dawned on me that the http server is stateless.  By far, most of my experience over the past thirty-five years has involved writing dynamic interfaces.


Today, I designed and coded a straightforward . . .fairly simple solution.  I will post the code ASAP, but Friday approaches.


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