CHDIR

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 2004-06-23
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NAME

chdir, fchdir - change working directory

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

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

DESCRIPTION

chdir changes the current 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.

RETURN VALUE

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

ERRORS

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.

NOTES

The prototype for fchdir is only available if _BSD_SOURCE is defined (either explicitly, or implicitly, by not defining _POSIX_SOURCE or compiling with the -ansi flag).

CONFORMING TO

The chdir call is compatible with SVr4, SVID, POSIX, X/OPEN, 4.4BSD. SVr4 documents additional EINTR, ENOLINK, and EMULTIHOP error conditions but has no ENOMEM. POSIX.1 does not have ENOMEM or ELOOP error conditions. X/OPEN does not have EFAULT, ENOMEM or EIO error conditions.

The fchdir call is compatible with SVr4, 4.4BSD and X/OPEN. SVr4 documents additional EIO, EINTR, and ENOLINK error conditions. X/OPEN documents additional EINTR and EIO error conditions.