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You are here: manpages

CHDIR

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 2017-09-15
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

chdir, fchdir - change working directory

SYNOPSIS

#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

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

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

ERRORS

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.

CONFORMING TO

POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.4BSD.

NOTES

The current working directory is the starting point for interpreting relative pathnames (those not starting with aq/aq).

A child process created via fork(2) inherits its parent's current working directory. The current working directory is left unchanged by execve(2).

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 4.13 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.