xref: /netbsd/lib/libc/sys/chdir.2 (revision bf9ec67e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: chdir.2,v 1.16 2002/02/08 01:28:16 ross Exp $
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34.\"     @(#)chdir.2	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
35.\"
36.Dd December 11, 1993
37.Dt CHDIR 2
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm chdir ,
41.Nm fchdir
42.Nd change current working directory
43.Sh LIBRARY
44.Lb libc
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Fd #include \*[Lt]unistd.h\*[Gt]
47.Ft int
48.Fn chdir "const char *path"
49.Ft int
50.Fn fchdir "int fd"
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Fa path
54argument points to the pathname of a directory.
55The
56.Fn chdir
57function
58causes the named directory
59to become the current working directory, that is,
60the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with
61a slash,
62.Ql / .
63.Pp
64The
65.Fn fchdir
66function
67causes the directory referenced by
68.Fa fd
69to become the current working directory,
70the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with
71a slash,
72.Ql / .
73.Pp
74In order for a directory to become the current directory,
75a process must have execute (search) access to the directory.
76.Sh RETURN VALUES
77Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.
78Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and
79.Va errno
80is set to indicate
81the error.
82.Sh ERRORS
83.Fn chdir
84will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if
85one or more of the following are true:
86.Bl -tag -width Er
87.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
88A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
89.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
90A component of a pathname exceeded
91.Dv {NAME_MAX}
92characters, or an entire path name exceeded
93.Dv {PATH_MAX}
94characters.
95.It Bq Er ENOENT
96The named directory does not exist.
97.It Bq Er ELOOP
98Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
99.It Bq Er EACCES
100Search permission is denied for any component of
101the path name.
102.It Bq Er EFAULT
103.Fa path
104points outside the process's allocated address space.
105.It Bq Er EIO
106An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
107.El
108.Pp
109.Fn fchdir
110will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if
111one or more of the following are true:
112.Bl -tag -width Er
113.It Bq Er EACCES
114Search permission is denied for the directory referenced by the
115file descriptor.
116.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
117The file descriptor does not reference a directory.
118.It Bq Er EBADF
119The argument
120.Fa fd
121is not a valid file descriptor.
122.It Bq Er EPERM
123The argument
124.Fa fd
125references a directory which is not at or below the current process's
126root directory.
127.El
128.Sh SEE ALSO
129.Xr chroot 2
130.Sh STANDARDS
131The
132.Fn chdir
133function conforms to
134.St -p1003.1-90 .
135.Sh HISTORY
136The
137.Fn fchdir
138function call
139appeared in
140.Bx 4.2 .
141