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chdir

Section: System Calls (2)
Updated: 2026-02-08
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NAME

chdir, fchdir - change working directory

LIBRARY

Standard C library (libc,~-lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>
int chdir(const char *path);
int fchdir(int fd);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)): fchdir():

    _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
        || /* Since glibc 2.12: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
        || /* glibc up to and including 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

chdir() changes the current working directory of the calling process to the directory 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 to indicate the error.

ERRORS

Depending on the filesystem, other errors can be returned. The more general errors for chdir() are listed below:

EACCES: Search permission is denied for one of the components of path. (See also path_resolution(7).)
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 directory specified in path 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.
ENOTDIR: fd does not refer to a directory.

STANDARDS

POSIX.1-2024.

HISTORY

chdir(): SVr4, POSIX.1-1988, 4.4BSD.
fchdir(): SVr4, 4.4BSD, SUSv1, POSIX.1-2001 XSI, POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES

The current working directory is the starting point for interpreting relative pathnames (those not starting with [aq]/[aq]). A child process created via fork(2) inherits its parent's current working directory. The current working directory is left unchanged by execve(2).