get "current working directory" that is, the default folder according to UNIX. get it fully-qualified name of the folder that pd was started from (unless you use an external to change this setting). this has nothing to do with File->Open's memory of the last folder. this is something you can set from a Terminal (actually from the Shell that is running in the Terminal) using the "cd" command, but it will only propagate to pd if you start pd directly from a Shell configured in such a manner. GNOME applications (Linux or other) depend. When using the "gnome-open" command in Terminal, the last "cd" gets transferred to Pd, but when clicking in GNOME's File Navigator, the user's home folder is used instead (e.g. "symbol /home/matju") OSX applications opened using the dock, or using the "open" command in the Shell, would make [gf/getcwd] report "symbol /". (just a slash: this is what is otherwise known as "Macintosh HD")