Which command shows the absolute path to the current working directory?

The command that shows the absolute path to the current working directory is pwd.

When executed, pwd, which stands for "print working directory," outputs the full path of the directory you are currently in within the filesystem. This is particularly useful for understanding your location in the directory structure, which can be critical when navigating or executing commands that rely on file paths.

In contrast, while echo $PWD also provides the absolute path to the current working directory, it does so by returning the value of the PWD environment variable, which stores the current working directory path. Although it achieves the same end result as pwd, the question explicitly asks for the command that shows the absolute path, making pwd the more direct answer.

The commands cd and ls serve entirely different purposes: cd is used to change the current directory, and ls is used to list files and directories within the current directory, rather than to display the path.