CentOS - Mar 2007 - My current directory is lost in a bash shell

This one puzzles me a lot:

[thba at vink layout]$ nc script/xw_functions.ample
NEdit: getcwd() fails: No such file or directory
NEdit: getcwd() fails: No such file or directory
[thba at vink layout]$ ll script/xw_functions.ample
-rw-rw-r--  1 thba thba 16829 Oct 25 16:59 script/xw_functions.ample
[thba at vink layout]$ pwd
/home/thba/workarea/colibri/design/ana/layout
[thba at vink layout]$ /bin/pwd
/bin/pwd: cannot get current directory: No such file or directory

This error occurs in a bash shell on a regular basis. The funny thing is 
that I can just access the file by cat:

cat script/xw_functions.ample

works fine (I get the content of the file).

To solve it for this shell I do this:

[thba at vink layout]$ cd
[thba at vink ~]$ cd -
/home/thba/workarea/colibri/design/ana/layout
[thba at vink layout]$ nc script/xw_functions.ample

And it is fine again.

This is a home nfs share mounted with these options:
arend:/export/home      /home                   nfs     
proto=tcp,nfsvers=3,bg,defaults        0 0

Both on the NFS server as on this client I see any errors or warning in 
any log. All kind of applications are affected by this problem so I need 
to dig into this deeper.

Server: FC3
client: CENTOS4.4

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Theo

Theo Band <theo.band at xanadu-wireless.com> wrote:
> [thba at vink layout]$ nc script/xw_functions.ample
> NEdit: getcwd() fails: No such file or directory
> NEdit: getcwd() fails: No such file or directory
> [thba at vink layout]$ ll script/xw_functions.ample
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thba thba 16829 Oct 25 16:59 script/xw_functions.ample
> [thba at vink layout]$ pwd
> /home/thba/workarea/colibri/design/ana/layout
> [thba at vink layout]$ /bin/pwd
> /bin/pwd: cannot get current directory: No such file or directory
This is typical when the directory you are in has been removed out from under
you. Try this:

Log into two shells (or use screen, or whatever), A and B. In A, do "cd ~;
mkdir -p xxx/yyy; cd xxx/yyy; touch 123; ls -l 123". Then, in B, do
"cd ~; rm
-rf xxx". Finally, back in A, repeat what you did above, "ls -l 123;
pwd;
/bin/pwd". You will find the behavior is the same.

Good luck,

robert