CHDIR(2)

NAME
chdir, fchdir - change current working directory

LIBRARY
libc

SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
chdir(const char *path);
int
fchdir(int fd);

DESCRIPTION
The path argument points to the pathname of a directory. The chdir() 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 fchdir() function causes the directory referenced by fd 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.

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

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

[EACCES]
    Search permission is denied for any component of the path name.

[EFAULT]
    path points outside the process's allocated address space.

[EIO]
    An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.

[ELOOP]
    Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

[ENAMETOOLONG]
    A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.

[ENOENT]
    The named directory does not exist.

[ENOTDIR]
    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:

[EACCES]
    Search permission is denied for the directory referenced by the file descriptor.

[EBADF]
    The argument fd is not a valid file descriptor.

[ENOTDIR]
    The file descriptor does not reference a directory.

[EPERM]
    The argument fd references a directory which is not at or below the current process's root directory.

SEE ALSO
chroot(2), getcwd(3)

STANDARDS
The chdir() function conforms to p1003.1-90.

HISTORY
A chdir() function call appeared in AT&T UNIX. The fchdir() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.