.\"	$OpenBSD: chdir.2,v 1.11 2013/03/31 08:34:27 guenther Exp $
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.\"     @(#)chdir.2	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: March 31 2013 $
.Dt CHDIR 2
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm chdir ,
.Nm fchdir
.Nd change current working directory
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <unistd.h>
.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 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.
.It Bq Er EIO
An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chroot 2
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn chdir
and
.Fn fchdir
functions are expected to conform to
.St -p1003.1-2008 .
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Fn chdir
system call first appeared in
.At v1 ,
and
.Fn fchdir
in
.Bx 4.3 Reno .