Get Script Directory in Bash

This tutorial demonstrates getting the script’s directory using the dirname command and the realpath command.

Get Script Directory in Bash

The dirname command is a Linux command that removes the file name, leaving the pathname of the directory that contains the file. The ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} is a variable that is used to get the script’s path in a sourced or directly executed bash script.

The realpath command expands all symbolic links and resolves references to /./, /../, and / characters in the null-terminated string named path to obtain the absolute path.

#!/bin/bash

DIR="$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"
DIR="$(realpath "${DIR}")"

echo $DIR

The output below shows that the script prints out its absolute path.