xref: /freebsd-13.1/lib/libc/sys/chdir.2 (revision dfd1ff19)
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32.\"     @(#)chdir.2	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd December 11, 1993
36.Dt CHDIR 2
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm chdir ,
40.Nm fchdir
41.Nd change current working directory
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In unistd.h
46.Ft int
47.Fn chdir "const char *path"
48.Ft int
49.Fn fchdir "int fd"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Fa path
53argument points to the pathname of a directory.
54The
55.Fn chdir
56system call
57causes the named directory
58to become the current working directory, that is,
59the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with
60a slash,
61.Ql / .
62.Pp
63The
64.Fn fchdir
65system call
66causes the directory referenced by
67.Fa fd
68to become the current working directory,
69the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with
70a slash,
71.Ql / .
72.Pp
73In order for a directory to become the current directory,
74a process must have execute (search) access to the directory.
75.Sh RETURN VALUES
76.Rv -std
77.Sh ERRORS
78The
79.Fn chdir
80system call
81will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if
82one or more of the following are true:
83.Bl -tag -width Er
84.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
85A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
86.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
87A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
88or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
89.It Bq Er ENOENT
90The named directory does not exist.
91.It Bq Er ELOOP
92Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
93.It Bq Er EACCES
94Search permission is denied for any component of
95the path name.
96.It Bq Er EFAULT
97The
98.Fa path
99argument
100points outside the process's allocated address space.
101.It Bq Er EIO
102An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
103.El
104.Pp
105The
106.Fn fchdir
107system call
108will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if
109one or more of the following are true:
110.Bl -tag -width Er
111.It Bq Er EACCES
112Search permission is denied for the directory referenced by the
113file descriptor.
114.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
115The file descriptor does not reference a directory.
116.It Bq Er EBADF
117The argument
118.Fa fd
119is not a valid file descriptor.
120.El
121.Sh SEE ALSO
122.Xr chroot 2
123.Sh STANDARDS
124The
125.Fn chdir
126system call is expected to conform to
127.St -p1003.1-90 .
128.Sh HISTORY
129The
130.Fn chdir
131system call appeared in
132.At v7 .
133The
134.Fn fchdir
135system call appeared in
136.Bx 4.2 .
137