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System Calls - Manual Reference Pages  - CHDIR (2)

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chdir, fchdir - change working directory

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Errors
Notes

--> #include <unistd.h>

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

chdir() changes the current working directory to that specified in path.

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

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

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 directories in the path prefix of path. (See also path_resolution(2).)
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.

A child process created via fork(2) inherits its parent’s current working 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.

SVr4, 4.4BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

chroot(2), path_resolution(2), getcwd(3) or go to Top of page |  Section 2 |  Main Man Index.