CHDIR(2) Linux Programmer s Manual CHDIR(2)

NAME chdir, fchdir - change working directory

SYNOPSIS #include <unistd.h>

int chdir(const char *path); int fchdir(int fd);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

fchdir(): _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500

DESCRIPTION chdir() changes the current working directory of the calling process to the directory specified in path.

fchdir() is identical to chdir(); the only difference is that the directory is given as an open file descriptor.

RETURN VALUE On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS Depending on the file system, other errors can be returned. The more general errors for chdir() are listed below:

EACCES Search permission is denied for one of the components of path. (See also path_resolution(7).)

EFAULT path points outside your accessible address space.

EIO An I/O error occurred.

ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path.

ENAMETOOLONG path is too long.

ENOENT The file does not exist.

ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

ENOTDIR A component of path is not a directory.

The general errors for fchdir() are listed below:

EACCES Search permission was denied on the directory open on fd.

EBADF fd is not a valid file descriptor.

CONFORMING TO SVr4, 4.4BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES The current working directory is the starting point for interpreting relative pathnames (those not starting with ’/’).

A child process created via fork(2) inherits its parent s current work- ing directory. The current working directory is left unchanged by execve(2).

The prototype for fchdir() is only available if _BSD_SOURCE is defined, or _XOPEN_SOURCE is defined with the value 500.

SEE ALSO chroot(2), getcwd(3), path_resolution(7)

COLOPHON This page is part of release 3.22 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux 2007-07-26 CHDIR(2)