shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory OR pwd: cannot get current directory: No such file or directory

Suddenly on my shell, in my vnc window, I got "shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory" for any shell command I executed.


dragon:685> ls
shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory
<op snipped>

Since it said "No such file or directory" , I tried executing "pwd" to get my current directory.  I got an error for "pwd" too..

dragon:736> pwd
pwd: cannot get current directory: No such file or directory


Puzzled..I did a "cd" .

dragon:737> cd

And then  executed "pwd". And Viola!! It worked!

dragon:738> pwd
/users/rover
dragon:739>

I later found out that I had deleted my "current working directory" in another shell window. When I did "cd" I got to my home directory and hence all my linux/unix commands worked..

Hope this helps!