CHDIR(2) MachTen Programmer’s Manual CHDIR(2)

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 direc-
tory, that is, the starting point for path searches of pathnames not be-
ginning 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 path-
names 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.

[EINVAL] The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit
set.

[ENAMETOOLONG]
A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an
entire path name exceeded 1023 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
Chdir() is expected to conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (‘‘POSIX’’).

HISTORY
The fchdir() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

4th Berkeley Distribution December 11, 1993 2