CHDIR(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual CHDIR(3P)PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAMEchdir — change working directory
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int chdir(const char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The chdir() function shall cause the directory named by the pathname
pointed to by the path argument to become the current working direc‐
tory; that is, the starting point for path searches for pathnames not
beginning with '/'.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned. Otherwise, −1 shall be
returned, the current working directory shall remain unchanged, and
errno shall be set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The chdir() function shall fail if:
EACCES Search permission is denied for any component of the pathname.
ELOOP A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of
the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a component of a pathname is longer than
{NAME_MAX}.
ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing directory or path
is an empty string.
ENOTDIR
A component of the pathname names an existing file that is nei‐
ther a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory.
The chdir() function may fail if:
ELOOP More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during
resolution of the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname resolu‐
tion of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result with a
length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Changing the Current Working Directory
The following example makes the value pointed to by directory, /tmp,
the current working directory.
#include <unistd.h>
...
char *directory = "/tmp";
int ret;
ret = chdir (directory);
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
The chdir() function only affects the working directory of the current
process.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOgetcwd()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <unistd.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 CHDIR(3P)
