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.

NAME¶

chdir — 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 directory; 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 neither 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 resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result with a length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.

The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES¶

#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 ALSO¶

getcwd()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <unistd.h>

COPYRIGHT¶

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. 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.opengroup.org/unix/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.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .