CHDIR(2) — SYSTEM CALLS

NAME

chdir − change current working directory

SYNOPSIS

int chdir(path)
char ∗path;

int fchdir(fd)
int fd;

DESCRIPTION

chdir() and fchdir() cause a directory to become the current working directory, that is, the starting point for pathnames not beginning with ‘/’.

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

The path argument to chdir() points to the pathname of a directory. The fd argument to fchdir() is the open file descriptor of a directory.

RETURN VALUE

Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value of −1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

WARNING

fchdir() is provided as a performance enhancement and is guaranteed to fail under certain conditions. In particular, if auditing is active the call will never succeed, and EINVAL will be returned. Applications which use this system call must be coded to detect this failure and switch to using chdir() from that point on.