xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/chdir.2 (revision ae9172d6cd9432a6a1a56760d86b32c57a66c39c)
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32.\"     from: @(#)chdir.2	6.7 (Berkeley) 3/10/91
33.\"	$Id: chdir.2,v 1.6 1994/04/22 00:13:26 jtc Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd March 10, 1991
36.Dt CHDIR 2
37.Os BSD 4
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm chdir ,
40.Nm fchdir
41.Nd change current working directory
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Fd #include <unistd.h>
44.Ft int
45.Fn chdir "const char *path"
46.Ft int
47.Fn fchdir "int fd"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Fa path
51argument points to the pathname of a directory.
52The
53.Fn chdir
54function
55causes the named directory
56to become the current working directory, that is,
57the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with
58a slash,
59.Ql / .
60.Pp
61The
62.Fn fchdir
63function
64causes the directory referenced by
65.Fa fd
66to become the current working directory,
67the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with
68a slash,
69.Ql / .
70.Pp
71In order for a directory to become the current directory,
72a process must have execute (search) access to the directory.
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
78the error.
79.Sh ERRORS
80.Fn Chdir
81will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if
82one or more of the following are true:
83.Bl -tag -width Er
84.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
85A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
86.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
87A component of a pathname exceeded
88.Dv {NAME_MAX}
89characters, or an entire path name exceeded
90.Dv {PATH_MAX}
91characters.
92.It Bq Er ENOENT
93The named directory does not exist.
94.It Bq Er ELOOP
95Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
96.It Bq Er EACCES
97Search permission is denied for any component of
98the path name.
99.It Bq Er EFAULT
100.Fa Path
101points outside the process's allocated address space.
102.It Bq Er EIO
103An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
104.El
105.Pp
106.Fn Fchdir
107will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if
108one or more of the following are true:
109.Bl -tag -width Er
110.It Bq Er EACCES
111Search permission is denied for the directory referenced by the
112file descriptor.
113.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
114The file descriptor does not reference a directory.
115.It Bq Er EBADF
116The argument
117.Fa fd
118is not a valid file descriptor.
119.El
120.Sh SEE ALSO
121.Xr chroot 2
122.Sh STANDARDS
123The
124.Fn chdir
125is expected to conform to
126.St -p1003.1-88 .
127.Sh HISTORY
128The
129.Fn fchdir
130function call
131appeared in
132.Bx 4.2 .
133