xref: /netbsd/lib/libc/sys/chroot.2 (revision 6550d01e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: chroot.2,v 1.23 2010/05/31 12:16:20 njoly Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993
4.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
8.\" are met:
9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
12.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
13.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
14.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
15.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
16.\"    without specific prior written permission.
17.\"
18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
19.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
20.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
21.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
22.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
23.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
24.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
25.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
26.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
27.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
28.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
29.\"
30.\"     @(#)chroot.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
31.\"
32.Dd April 18, 2001
33.Dt CHROOT 2
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm chroot
37.Nd change root directory
38.Sh LIBRARY
39.Lb libc
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In unistd.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn chroot "const char *dirname"
44.Ft int
45.Fn fchroot "int fd"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Fa dirname
48is the address of the pathname of a directory, terminated by an ASCII NUL.
49.Fn chroot
50causes
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
60If the current working directory is not at or under the new root
61directory, it is silently set to the new root directory.
62It should be noted that, on most other systems,
63.Fn chroot
64has no effect on the process's current directory.
65.Pp
66This call is restricted to the super-user.
67.Pp
68The
69.Fn fchroot
70function performs the same operation on an open directory file
71known by the file descriptor
72.Fa fd .
73.Sh RETURN VALUES
74Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.
75Otherwise, a value of \-1 is returned and
76.Va errno
77is set to indicate an error.
78.Sh ERRORS
79.Fn chroot
80will fail and the root directory will be unchanged if:
81.Bl -tag -width Er
82.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
83A component of the path name is not a directory.
84.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
85A component of a pathname exceeded
86.Brq Dv NAME_MAX
87characters, or an entire path name exceeded
88.Brq Dv PATH_MAX
89characters.
90.It Bq Er ENOENT
91The named directory does not exist.
92.It Bq Er EACCES
93Search permission is denied for any component of the path name.
94.It Bq Er ELOOP
95Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
96.It Bq Er EFAULT
97.Fa dirname
98points outside the process's allocated address space.
99.It Bq Er EIO
100An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
101.It Bq Er EPERM
102The effective user ID of the calling process is not the super-user.
103.El
104.Pp
105.Fn fchroot
106will fail and the root directory will be unchanged if:
107.Bl -tag -width Er
108.It Bq Er EACCES
109Search permission is denied for the directory referenced
110by the file descriptor.
111.It Bq Er EBADF
112The argument
113.Fa fd
114is not a valid file descriptor.
115.It Bq Er EIO
116An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
117.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
118The argument
119.Fa fd
120does not reference a directory.
121.It Bq Er EPERM
122The effective user ID of the calling process is not the super-user.
123.El
124.Sh SEE ALSO
125.Xr chdir 2
126.Sh STANDARDS
127The
128.Fn chroot
129function conforms to
130.St -xsh5 ,
131with the restriction that the calling process' working directory must be at
132or under the new root directory.
133Otherwise, the working directory is silently set to the new root directory;
134this is an extension to the standard.
135.Pp
136.Fn chroot
137was declared a legacy interface, and subsequently removed in
138.St -p1003.1-2001 .
139.Sh HISTORY
140The
141.Fn chroot
142function call appeared in
143.Bx 4.2 .
144Working directory handling was changed in
145.Nx 1.4
146to prevent one way a process could use a second
147.Fn chroot
148call to a different directory to "escape" from the restricted subtree.
149The
150.Fn fchroot
151function appeared in
152.Nx 1.4 .
153