Steps for reproduction: 1. Run =emacs -Q= in some directory outside the user's home directory 2. Check the value of the variable =default-directory=, and verify that it matches the directory you started emacs in 3. Create an emacs child process using: #+begin_src emacs_lisp (call-process (file-truename (expand-file-name invocation-name invocation-directory)) nil nil nil "-Q") #+end_src 4. In the newly created frame, check the value of the default directory 5. Behavior on GNU/Linux: The directory matches the value shown in (2) Behavior on macOS: The default directory has changed to the user's home directory The behavior was spotted when we noticed inconsistent behavior in [[https://github.com/minad/affe][affe.el]], which was subsequently reproduced using =emacs -Q= In GNU Emacs 28.0.50 (build 2, aarch64-apple-darwin20.4.0, NS appkit-2022.44 Version 11.3.1 (Build 20E241)) of 2021-05-16 built on localhost Repository revision: 1b8f013d179e8866819fe53b4708b57e753a08fc Repository branch: master Windowing system distributor 'Apple', version 10.3.2022 System Description: macOS 11.3.1 Configured using: 'configure --with-ns --with-modules --with-gnutls CFLAGS=-O3' Configured features: ACL GLIB GNUTLS JSON LCMS2 LIBXML2 MODULES NOTIFY KQUEUE NS PDUMPER PNG RSVG THREADS TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS XIM ZLIB Important settings: value of $LC_CTYPE: UTF-8 value of $LANG: en_IN.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Lisp Interaction Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny dired dired-loaddefs rfc822 mml mml-sec epa derived epg epg-config gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs eieio-loaddefs password-cache json map text-property-search time-date subr-x seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cconv mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader cl-loaddefs cl-lib sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils iso-transl tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel term/ns-win ns-win ucs-normalize mule-util term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch easymenu timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax font-core term/tty-colors frame minibuffer cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray cl-preloaded nadvice button loaddefs faces cus-face macroexp files window text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote threads kqueue cocoa ns lcms2 multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 50394 13010) (symbols 48 6513 1) (strings 32 18129 1897) (string-bytes 1 601636) (vectors 16 12488) (vector-slots 8 175753 14592) (floats 8 21 50) (intervals 56 206 0) (buffers 992 11))