elisp function to find pwd

[Vijay Lakshminarayanan]

Hi

I'd like to know if there exists a simple elisp function that I can
call and just get the present working directory.

I tried (pwd) but it gives a prefix.  For example:

(pwd)
"Directory C:\\emacs-22.2\\bin/"

Which prefixes "Directory" to the result.  I could just strip that bit
out but I'd like to know if there's an easier way.

Another hack I tried is:

(defun get-pwd-hack ()
  (let* ((buffer-name (buffer-name))
         (buffer-file-name (buffer-file-name))
         (bnl (length buffer-name))
         (bfnl (length buffer-file-name)))
    (substring buffer-file-name 0 (- bfnl (1+ bnl)))))

Which will fail if I'm in, say, the *scratch* buffer.

Thanks
Vijay