xref: /openbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/chroot.2 (revision b2ea75c1b17e1a9a339660e7ed45cd24946b230e)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: chroot.2,v 1.10 2000/10/18 05:12:08 aaron Exp $
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35.\"     @(#)chroot.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
36.\"
37.Dd June 4, 1993
38.Dt CHROOT 2
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm chroot
42.Nd change root directory
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include <unistd.h>
45.Ft int
46.Fn chroot "const char *dirname"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Fa dirname
49is the address of the pathname of a directory, terminated by an
50.Tn ASCII
51NUL.
52.Fn chroot
53causes
54.Fa dirname
55to become the root directory, that is, the starting point for path
56searches of pathnames beginning with
57.Ql / .
58.Pp
59In order for a directory to become the root directory
60a process must have execute (search) access for that directory.
61.Pp
62If the program is not currently running with an altered root directory,
63it should be noted that
64.Fn chroot
65has no effect on the process's current directory.
66.Pp
67If the program is already running with an altered root directory, the
68process's current directory is changed to the same new root directory.
69This prevents the current directory from being further up the directory
70tree than the altered root directory.
71.Pp
72This call is restricted to the superuser.
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.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 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.El
102.Sh SEE ALSO
103.Xr chdir 2
104.Sh WARNINGS
105There are ways for a root process to escape from the chroot jail.
106.Sh HISTORY
107The
108.Fn chroot
109function call appeared in
110.Bx 4.2 .
111