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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON


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

NAME         top

       chdir, fchdir - change working directory

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(): _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500

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
       appropriately.

ERRORS         top

       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         top

       SVr4, 4.4BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

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).

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

SEE ALSO         top

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

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.23 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)