chdir(2) — Linux manual page

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | STANDARDS | HISTORY | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

chdir(2)                   System Calls Manual                  chdir(2)

NAME         top

       chdir, fchdir - change working directory

LIBRARY         top

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <unistd.h>

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

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

       fchdir():
           _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
               || /* Since glibc 2.12: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
               || /* glibc up to and including 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION         top

       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         top

       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and
       errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS         top

       Depending on the filesystem, 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 directory specified in path 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.

       ENOTDIR
              fd does not refer to a directory.

STANDARDS         top

       POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY         top

       POSIX.1-2001, SVr4, 4.4BSD.

NOTES         top

       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
       working directory.  The current working directory is left
       unchanged by execve(2).

SEE ALSO         top

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

COLOPHON         top

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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02                       chdir(2)

Pages that refer to this page: chroot(2)clone(2)open(2)pivot_root(2)rmdir(2)syscalls(2)unshare(2)dirfd(3)fts(3)ftw(3)getcwd(3)cpuset(7)landlock(7)path_resolution(7)pthreads(7)signal-safety(7)