xref: /freebsd-13.1/lib/libc/sys/chroot.2 (revision dfd1ff19)
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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.
101Otherwise,
102a value of -1 is returned and
103.Va errno
104is set to indicate an error.
105.Sh ERRORS
106The
107.Fn chroot
108system call
109will fail and the root directory will be unchanged if:
110.Bl -tag -width Er
111.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
112A component of the path name is not a directory.
113.It Bq Er EPERM
114The effective user ID is not the super-user, or one or more
115filedescriptors are open directories.
116.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
117A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
118or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
119.It Bq Er ENOENT
120The named directory does not exist.
121.It Bq Er EACCES
122Search permission is denied for any component of the path name.
123.It Bq Er ELOOP
124Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
125.It Bq Er EFAULT
126The
127.Fa dirname
128argument
129points outside the process's allocated address space.
130.It Bq Er EIO
131An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
132.El
133.Sh SEE ALSO
134.Xr chdir 2 ,
135.Xr jail 2
136.Sh HISTORY
137The
138.Fn chroot
139system call appeared in
140.Bx 4.2 .
141.Sh BUGS
142If the process is able to change its working directory to the target
143directory, but another access control check fails (such as a check for
144open directories, or a MAC check), it is possible that this system
145call may return an error, with the working directory of the process
146left changed.
147