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Mac OS X / Darwin man pages : chdir (2)
chdir (2)

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Name

chdir, fchdir - change current working directory

Synopsis

#include <unistd.h>

int
chdir(const char *path);

int
fchdir(int fd);

Description

The path argument points to the pathname of a directory. The chdir() function causes the named directory to become the current working directory, that is, the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with a slash, `/'.

The fchdir() function causes the directory referenced by fd to become the current working directory, the starting point for path searches of pathnames not beginning with a slash, `/'.

In order for a directory to become the current directory, a process must have execute (search) access to the directory.

Return Values

Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

Errors

Chdir() will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if one or more of the following are true:

[ENOTDIR]
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

[ENAMETOOLONG]
A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.

[ENOENT]
The named directory does not exist.

[ELOOP]
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

[EACCES]
Search permission is denied for any component of the path name.

[EFAULT]
Path points outside the process's allocated address space.

[EIO]
An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.

Fchdir() will fail and the current working directory will be unchanged if one or more of the following are true:

[EACCES]
Search permission is denied for the directory referenced by the file descriptor.

[ENOTDIR]
The file descriptor does not reference a directory.

[EBADF]
The argument fd is not a valid file descriptor.

See Also

chroot(2)

Standards

The chdir() is expected to conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (``POSIX.1'').

History

The fchdir() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

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