man2/chdir.2

   1 .\" Copyright (c) 1992 Drew Eckhardt (drew@cs.colorado.edu), March 28, 1992
   2 .\"
   3 .\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
   4 .\"
   5 .\" Modified by Michael Haardt <michael@moria.de>
   6 .\" Modified 1993-07-21 by Rik Faith <faith@cs.unc.edu>
   7 .\" Modified 1995-04-15 by Michael Chastain <mec@shell.portal.com>:
   8 .\"   Added 'fchdir'. Fixed bugs in error section.
   9 .\" Modified 1996-10-21 by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
  10 .\" Modified 1997-08-21 by Joseph S. Myers <jsm28@cam.ac.uk>
  11 .\" Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
  12 .\"
  13 .TH chdir 2 (date) "Linux man-pages (unreleased)"
  14 .SH NAME
  15 chdir, fchdir \- change working directory
  16 .SH LIBRARY
  17 Standard C library
  18 .RI ( libc ", " \-lc )
  19 .SH SYNOPSIS
  20 .nf
  21 .B #include <unistd.h>
  22 .PP
  23 .BI "int chdir(const char *" path );
  24 .BI "int fchdir(int " fd );
  25 .fi
  26 .PP
  27 .RS -4
  28 Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
  29 .BR feature_test_macros (7)):
  30 .RE
  31 .PP
  32 .BR fchdir ():
  33 .nf
  34     _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
  35 .\"    || _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED
  36         || /* Since glibc 2.12: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
  37         || /* Glibc up to and including 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE
  38 .fi
  39 .SH DESCRIPTION
  40 .BR chdir ()
  41 changes the current working directory of the calling process to the
  42 directory specified in
  43 .IR path .
  44 .PP
  45 .BR fchdir ()
  46 is identical to
  47 .BR chdir ();
  48 the only difference is that the directory is given as an
  49 open file descriptor.
  50 .SH RETURN VALUE
  51 On success, zero is returned.
  52 On error, \-1 is returned, and
  53 .I errno
  54 is set to indicate the error.
  55 .SH ERRORS
  56 Depending on the filesystem, other errors can be returned.
  57 The more
  58 general errors for
  59 .BR chdir ()
  60 are listed below:
  61 .TP
  62 .B EACCES
  63 Search permission is denied for one of the components of
  64 .IR path .
  65 (See also
  66 .BR path_resolution (7).)
  67 .TP
  68 .B EFAULT
  69 .I path
  70 points outside your accessible address space.
  71 .TP
  72 .B EIO
  73 An I/O error occurred.
  74 .TP
  75 .B ELOOP
  76 Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving
  77 .IR path .
  78 .TP
  79 .B ENAMETOOLONG
  80 .I path
  81 is too long.
  82 .TP
  83 .B ENOENT
  84 The directory specified in
  85 .I path
  86 does not exist.
  87 .TP
  88 .B ENOMEM
  89 Insufficient kernel memory was available.
  90 .TP
  91 .B ENOTDIR
  92 A component of
  93 .I path
  94 is not a directory.
  95 .PP
  96 The general errors for
  97 .BR fchdir ()
  98 are listed below:
  99 .TP
 100 .B EACCES
 101 Search permission was denied on the directory open on
 102 .IR fd .
 103 .TP
 104 .B EBADF
 105 .I fd
 106 is not a valid file descriptor.
 107 .TP
 108 .B ENOTDIR
 109 .I fd
 110 does not refer to a directory.
 111 .SH STANDARDS
 112 POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.4BSD.
 113 .SH NOTES
 114 The current working directory is the starting point for interpreting
 115 relative pathnames (those not starting with \(aq/\(aq).
 116 .PP
 117 A child process created via
 118 .BR fork (2)
 119 inherits its parent's current working directory.
 120 The current working directory is left unchanged by
 121 .BR execve (2).
 122 .SH SEE ALSO
 123 .BR chroot (2),
 124 .BR getcwd (3),
 125 .BR path_resolution (7)