Windows shell command to get the full path to the current directory?

Use cd with no arguments if you're using the shell directly, or %cd% if you want to use it in a batch file (it behaves like an environment variable).

Quote the Windows help for the set command (set /?):

If Command Extensions are enabled, then there are several dynamic
environment variables that can be expanded but which don't show up in
the list of variables displayed by SET.  These variable values are
computed dynamically each time the value of the variable is expanded.
If the user explicitly defines a variable with one of these names, then
that definition will override the dynamic one described below:

%CD% - expands to the current directory string.

%DATE% - expands to current date using same format as DATE command.

%TIME% - expands to current time using same format as TIME command.

%RANDOM% - expands to a random decimal number between 0 and 32767.

%ERRORLEVEL% - expands to the current ERRORLEVEL value

%CMDEXTVERSION% - expands to the current Command Processor Extensions
    version number.

%CMDCMDLINE% - expands to the original command line that invoked the
    Command Processor.

Note the %CD% - expands to the current directory string. part.

On Unix?

pwd

Create a .bat file under System32, let us name it copypath.bat the command to copy current path could be:

echo %cd% | clip

Explanation:

%cd% will give you current path

CLIP

Description:
    Redirects output of command line tools to the Windows clipboard.
    This text output can then be pasted into other programs.

Parameter List:
    /?                  Displays this help message.

Examples:
    DIR | CLIP          Places a copy of the current directory
                        listing into the Windows clipboard.

    CLIP < README.TXT   Places a copy of the text from readme.txt
                        on to the Windows clipboard.

Now copypath is available from everywhere.

For Windows, cd by itself will show you the current working directory.

For UNIX and workalike systems, pwd will perform the same task. You can also use the $PWD shell variable under some shells. I am not sure if Windows supports getting the current working directory via a shell variable or not.

Based on the follow up question (store the data in a variable) in the comments to the chdir post I'm betting he wants to store the current path to restore it after changeing directories.

The original user should look at "pushd", which changes directory and pushes the current one onto a stack that can be restored with a "popd". On any modern Windows cmd shell that is the way to go when making batch files.

If you really need to grab the current path then modern cmd shells also have a %CD% variable that you can easily stuff away in another variable for reference.

As one of the possible codes

    echo off
    for /f "usebackq tokens=* delims= " %%x in (`chdir`) do set var=%var% %%x
    echo The current directory is: "%var:~1%"

On Windows, type cd for the working current path.

On Linux, pwd for the current working path.