CHROOT(2)                           Linux Programmer's Manual                           CHROOT(2)



NAME
       chroot - change root directory

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       int chroot(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION
       chroot  changes the root directory to that specified in path.  This directory will be used
       for path names beginning with /.  The root directory is inherited by all children  of  the
       current process.

       Only the super-user may change the root directory.

       Note that this call does not change the current working directory, so that '.' can be out-
       side the tree rooted at '/'.  In particular, the super-user  can  escape  from  a  'chroot
       jail' by doing 'mkdir foo; chroot foo; cd ..'.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS
       Depending  on  the file system, other errors can be returned.  The more general errors are
       listed below:


       EPERM  The effective UID is not zero.

       EFAULT path points outside your accessible address space.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              path is too long.

       ENOENT The file does not exist.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       ENOTDIR
              A component of path is not a directory.

       EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4, SVID, 4.4BSD, X/OPEN.  This function is not part of POSIX.1.  SVr4  documents  addi-
       tional  EINTR,  ENOLINK  and  EMULTIHOP  error  conditions.  X/OPEN does not document EIO,
       ENOMEM or EFAULT error conditions.  This interface is marked as legacy by X/OPEN.

NOTES
       FreeBSD has a stronger jail() system call.

SEE ALSO
       chdir(2)



Linux 2.0.30                                1997-08-21                                  CHROOT(2)