NAME

chdir, fchdir − change working directory

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int chdir(const char ∗path);

int fchdir(int fildes);

DESCRIPTION

chdir and fchdir cause a directory pointed to by path or fildes to become the current working directory, the starting point for path searches for path names not beginning with /.  path points to the path name of a directory.  The fildes argument to fchdir is an open file descriptor of a directory. 

In order for a directory to become the current directory, a process must have execute (search) access to the directory. 

chdir will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if one or more of the following are true:

EACCES Search permission is denied for any component of the path name. 

EFAULT path points outside the allocated address space of the process. 

EINTR A signal was caught during the execution of the chdir system call. 

EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. 

ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating path.

ENAMETOOLONG The length of the path argument exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or the length of a path component exceeds {NAME_MAX} while _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect. 

ENOTDIR A component of the path name is not a directory. 

ENOENT Either a component of the path prefix or the directory named by path does not exist or is a null pathname. 

ENOLINK path points to a remote machine and the link to that machine is no longer active. 

EMULTIHOP Components of path require hopping to multiple remote machines and file system type does not allow it. 

fchdir will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if one or more of the following are true:

EACCES Search permission is denied for fildes. 

EBADF fildes is not an open file descriptor. 

EINTR A signal was caught during the execution of the fchdir system call. 

EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. 

ENOLINK fildes points to a remote machine and the link to that machine is no longer active. 

ENOTDIR The open file descriptor fildes does not refer to a directory. 

SEE ALSO

chroot(2)

DIAGNOSTICS

Upon successful completion, a value of zero is returned.  Otherwise, a value of −1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.