xref: /freebsd-13.1/lib/libc/sys/chroot.2 (revision 06a31d6a)
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32.\"     @(#)chroot.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 4, 1993
36.Dt CHROOT 2
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm chroot
40.Nd change root directory
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In unistd.h
45.Ft int
46.Fn chroot "const char *dirname"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Fa dirname
50argument
51is the address of the pathname of a directory, terminated by an ASCII NUL.
52The
53.Fn chroot
54system call causes
55.Fa dirname
56to become the root directory,
57that is, the starting point for path searches of pathnames
58beginning with
59.Ql / .
60.Pp
61In order for a directory to become the root directory
62a process must have execute (search) access for that directory.
63.Pp
64It should be noted that
65.Fn chroot
66has no effect on the process's current directory.
67.Pp
68This call is restricted to the super-user.
69.Pp
70Depending on the setting of the
71.Ql kern.chroot_allow_open_directories
72sysctl variable, open filedescriptors which reference directories
73will make the
74.Fn chroot
75fail as follows:
76.Pp
77If
78.Ql kern.chroot_allow_open_directories
79is set to zero,
80.Fn chroot
81will always fail with
82.Er EPERM
83if there are any directories open.
84.Pp
85If
86.Ql kern.chroot_allow_open_directories
87is set to one (the default),
88.Fn chroot
89will fail with
90.Er EPERM
91if there are any directories open and the
92process is already subject to the
93.Fn chroot
94system call.
95.Pp
96Any other value for
97.Ql kern.chroot_allow_open_directories
98will bypass the check for open directories
99.Pp
100Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise,
101a value of -1 is returned and
102.Va errno
103is set to indicate an error.
104.Sh ERRORS
105The
106.Fn chroot
107system call
108will fail and the root directory will be unchanged if:
109.Bl -tag -width Er
110.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
111A component of the path name is not a directory.
112.It Bq Er EPERM
113The effective user ID is not the super-user, or one or more
114filedescriptors are open directories.
115.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
116A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
117or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
118.It Bq Er ENOENT
119The named directory does not exist.
120.It Bq Er EACCES
121Search permission is denied for any component of the path name.
122.It Bq Er ELOOP
123Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
124.It Bq Er EFAULT
125The
126.Fa dirname
127argument
128points outside the process's allocated address space.
129.It Bq Er EIO
130An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
131.El
132.Sh SEE ALSO
133.Xr chdir 2 ,
134.Xr jail 2
135.Sh HISTORY
136The
137.Fn chroot
138system call appeared in
139.Bx 4.2 .
140.Sh BUGS
141If the process is able to change its working directory to the target
142directory, but another access control check fails (such as a check for
143open directories, or a MAC check), it is possible that this system
144call may return an error, with the working directory of the process
145left changed.
146