Python | os.getcwdb() method (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 15 Jun, 2026

os.getcwdb() method returns the current working directory as a bytes object. It is similar to os.getcwd(), but instead of returning a string, it returns the directory path in bytes format.

**Example: In the following example, we get the current working directory as a bytes object.

Python `

import os print(os.getcwdb())

`

**Output

b'/home/user'

**Explanation: os.getcwdb() returns the current working directory in bytes format. The prefix b indicates that the result is a bytes object.

Syntax

os.getcwdb()

**Return Value: Returns the current working directory as a bytes object.

Examples

**Example 1: The following example stores the current working directory in a variable and prints it. This can be useful when the directory path is needed later in the program.

Python `

import os cwd = os.getcwdb() print(cwd)

`

**Output

b'/home/user/projects'

**Explanation: os.getcwdb() returns the current directory as bytes and stores it in cwd.

**Example 2: The following example verifies the data type returned by os.getcwdb().

Python `

import os cwd = os.getcwdb() print(type(cwd))

`

**Explanation: type(cwd) shows that os.getcwdb() returns a bytes object, not a string.

**Example 3: The following example converts the bytes path returned by os.getcwdb() into a regular string.

Python `

import os cwd = os.getcwdb() print(cwd.decode())

`

**Output

/home/user/projects

**Explanation: cwd.decode() converts the bytes object returned by os.getcwdb() into a string representation of the directory path.