CHDIR(2) System Calls Manual CHDIR(2)

chdir, fchdir — change current working directory

#include <unistd.h>

int
chdir(const char *path);

int
fchdir(int fildes);

The path argument points to the pathname of a directory. The () function causes the named directory to become the current working directory, that is, the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with a slash, ‘/’.

The () function causes the directory referenced by fildes to become the current working directory, the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with a slash, ‘/’.

In order for a directory to become the current directory, a process must have execute (search) access to the directory.

Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

The chdir() system call will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if one or more of the following are true:

[]
Search permission is denied for any component of the path name.
[]
Path points outside the process's allocated address space.
[]
An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
[]
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link.
[]
A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.
[]
The named directory does not exist.
[]
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

fchdir() will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if one or more of the following are true:

[]
Search permission is denied for the directory referenced by the file descriptor.
[]
The argument fildes is not a valid file descriptor.
[]
fchdir() was interrupted by a signal.
[]
An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
[]
The file descriptor does not reference a directory.

chroot(2)

The chdir() is expected to conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (“POSIX.1”).

The fchdir() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

December 11, 1993 BSD 4