xref: /openbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/chdir.2 (revision b2ea75c1b17e1a9a339660e7ed45cd24946b230e)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: chdir.2,v 1.6 2000/10/18 05:12:08 aaron Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: chdir.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:32:00 cgd Exp $
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35.\"     @(#)chdir.2	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
36.\"
37.Dd December 11, 1993
38.Dt CHDIR 2
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm chdir ,
42.Nm fchdir
43.Nd change current working directory
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Fd #include <unistd.h>
46.Ft int
47.Fn chdir "const char *path"
48.Ft int
49.Fn fchdir "int fd"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Fa path
53argument points to the pathname of a directory.
54The
55.Fn chdir
56function causes the named directory to become the current working directory,
57that is, the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with
58a slash
59.Pq Ql / .
60.Pp
61The
62.Fn fchdir
63function causes the directory referenced by
64.Fa fd
65to become the current working directory,
66the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with
67a slash
68.Pq Ql / .
69.Pp
70In order for a directory to become the current directory,
71a process must have execute (search) access to the directory.
72.Sh RETURN VALUES
73Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.
74Otherwise, a value of \-1 is returned and
75.Va errno
76is set to indicate the error.
77.Sh ERRORS
78.Fn chdir
79will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if
80one or more of the following are true:
81.Bl -tag -width Er
82.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
83A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
84.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
85A component of a pathname exceeded
86.Dv {NAME_MAX}
87characters, or an entire path name exceeded
88.Dv {PATH_MAX}
89characters.
90.It Bq Er ENOENT
91The named directory does not exist.
92.It Bq Er ELOOP
93Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
94.It Bq Er EACCES
95Search permission is denied for any component of the pathname.
96.It Bq Er EFAULT
97.Fa path
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.El
102.Pp
103.Fn fchdir
104will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if
105one or more of the following are true:
106.Bl -tag -width Er
107.It Bq Er EACCES
108Search permission is denied for the directory referenced by the
109file descriptor.
110.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
111The file descriptor does not reference a directory.
112.It Bq Er EBADF
113The argument
114.Fa fd
115is not a valid file descriptor.
116.El
117.Sh SEE ALSO
118.Xr chroot 2
119.Sh STANDARDS
120The
121.Fn chdir
122is expected to conform to
123.St -p1003.1-88 .
124.Sh HISTORY
125The
126.Fn fchdir
127function call appeared in
128.Bx 4.2 .
129