xref: /freebsd-14.2/lib/libc/sys/chroot.2 (revision 87f2ff4f)
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28.\"     @(#)chroot.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd June 4, 1993
32.Dt CHROOT 2
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm chroot
36.Nd change root directory
37.Sh LIBRARY
38.Lb libc
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.In unistd.h
41.Ft int
42.Fn chroot "const char *dirname"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fa dirname
46argument
47is the address of the pathname of a directory, terminated by an ASCII NUL.
48The
49.Fn chroot
50system call causes
51.Fa dirname
52to become the root directory,
53that is, the starting point for path searches of pathnames
54beginning with
55.Ql / .
56.Pp
57In order for a directory to become the root directory
58a process must have execute (search) access for that directory.
59.Pp
60It should be noted that
61.Fn chroot
62has no effect on the process's current directory.
63.Pp
64This call is restricted to the super-user.
65.Pp
66Depending on the setting of the
67.Ql kern.chroot_allow_open_directories
68sysctl variable, open filedescriptors which reference directories
69will make the
70.Fn chroot
71fail as follows:
72.Pp
73If
74.Ql kern.chroot_allow_open_directories
75is set to zero,
76.Fn chroot
77will always fail with
78.Er EPERM
79if there are any directories open.
80.Pp
81If
82.Ql kern.chroot_allow_open_directories
83is set to one (the default),
84.Fn chroot
85will fail with
86.Er EPERM
87if there are any directories open and the
88process is already subject to the
89.Fn chroot
90system call.
91.Pp
92Any other value for
93.Ql kern.chroot_allow_open_directories
94will bypass the check for open directories
95.Pp
96Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.
97Otherwise,
98a value of -1 is returned and
99.Va errno
100is set to indicate an error.
101.Sh ERRORS
102The
103.Fn chroot
104system call
105will fail and the root directory will be unchanged if:
106.Bl -tag -width Er
107.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
108A component of the path name is not a directory.
109.It Bq Er EPERM
110The effective user ID is not the super-user, or one or more
111filedescriptors are open directories.
112.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
113A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
114or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
115.It Bq Er ENOENT
116The named directory does not exist.
117.It Bq Er EACCES
118Search permission is denied for any component of the path name.
119.It Bq Er ELOOP
120Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
121.It Bq Er EFAULT
122The
123.Fa dirname
124argument
125points outside the process's allocated address space.
126.It Bq Er EIO
127An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
128.El
129.Sh SEE ALSO
130.Xr chdir 2 ,
131.Xr jail 2
132.Sh HISTORY
133The
134.Fn chroot
135system call appeared in
136.Bx 4.2 .
137.Sh BUGS
138If the process is able to change its working directory to the target
139directory, but another access control check fails (such as a check for
140open directories, or a MAC check), it is possible that this system
141call may return an error, with the working directory of the process
142left changed.
143