.\" $OpenBSD: chdir.2,v 1.6 2000/10/18 05:12:08 aaron Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: chdir.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:32:00 cgd Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)chdir.2 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93 .\" .Dd December 11, 1993 .Dt CHDIR 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm chdir , .Nm fchdir .Nd change current working directory .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Ft int .Fn chdir "const char *path" .Ft int .Fn fchdir "int fd" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fa path argument points to the pathname of a directory. The .Fn 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 .Pq Ql / . .Pp The .Fn fchdir function causes the directory referenced by .Fa fd to become the current working directory, the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with a slash .Pq Ql / . .Pp In order for a directory to become the current directory, a process must have execute (search) access to the directory. .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value of \-1 is returned and .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS .Fn chdir will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if one or more of the following are true: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory. .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeded .Dv {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded .Dv {PATH_MAX} characters. .It Bq Er ENOENT The named directory does not exist. .It Bq Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. .It Bq Er EACCES Search permission is denied for any component of the pathname. .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa path points outside the process's allocated address space. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .El .Pp .Fn fchdir will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if one or more of the following are true: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EACCES Search permission is denied for the directory referenced by the file descriptor. .It Bq Er ENOTDIR The file descriptor does not reference a directory. .It Bq Er EBADF The argument .Fa fd is not a valid file descriptor. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chroot 2 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn chdir is expected to conform to .St -p1003.1-88 . .Sh HISTORY The .Fn fchdir function call appeared in .Bx 4.2 .