_chdir, _wchdir

Article
12/21/2012

Changes the current working directory.

Important

This API cannot be used in applications that execute in the Windows Runtime. For more information, see CRT functions not supported with /ZW.

int _chdir( 
   const char *dirname 
);
int _wchdir( 
   const wchar_t *dirname 
);

Parameters

dirname
Path of new working directory.

Return Value

These functions return a value of 0 if successful. A return value of –1 indicates failure. If the specified path could not be found, errno is set to ENOENT. If dirname is NULL, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter Validation. If execution is allowed to continue, errno is set to EINVAL and the function returns -1.

Remarks

The _chdir function changes the current working directory to the directory specified by dirname. The dirname parameter must refer to an existing directory. This function can change the current working directory on any drive. If a new drive letter is specified in dirname, the default drive letter is changed as well. For example, if A is the default drive letter and \BIN is the current working directory, the following call changes the current working directory for drive C and establishes C as the new default drive:

_chdir("c:\\temp");

When you use the optional backslash character (\) in paths, you must place two backslashes (\\) in a C string literal to represent a single backslash (\).

_wchdir is a wide-character version of _chdir; the dirname argument to _wchdir is a wide-character string. _wchdir and _chdir behave identically otherwise.

Generic-Text Routine Mapping:

Tchar.h routine	_UNICODE and _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tchdir	_chdir	_chdir	_wchdir

Requirements

Routine	Required header	Optional header
_chdir	<direct.h>	<errno.h>
_wchdir	<direct.h> or <wchar.h>	<errno.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Example

// crt_chdir.c
// arguments: C:\WINDOWS

/* This program uses the _chdir function to verify
   that a given directory exists. */

#include <direct.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>

int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
{

   if(_chdir( argv[1] ) )
   {
      switch (errno)
      {
      case ENOENT:
         printf( "Unable to locate the directory: %s\n", argv[1] );
         break;
      case EINVAL:
         printf( "Invalid buffer.\n");
         break;
      default:
         printf( "Unknown error.\n");
      }
   }
   else
      system( "dir *.exe");
}

Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 2018-08A1

 Directory of c:\windows

08/29/2002  04:00 AM         1,004,032 explorer.exe
12/17/2002  04:43 PM            10,752 hh.exe
03/03/2003  09:24 AM            33,792 ieuninst.exe
10/29/1998  04:45 PM           306,688 IsUninst.exe
08/29/2002  04:00 AM            66,048 NOTEPAD.EXE
03/03/2003  09:24 AM            33,792 Q330994.exe
08/29/2002  04:00 AM           134,144 regedit.exe
02/28/2003  06:26 PM            46,352 setdebug.exe
08/29/2002  04:00 AM            15,360 TASKMAN.EXE
08/29/2002  04:00 AM            49,680 twunk_16.exe
08/29/2002  04:00 AM            25,600 twunk_32.exe
08/29/2002  04:00 AM           256,192 winhelp.exe
08/29/2002  04:00 AM           266,752 winhlp32.exe
              13 File(s)      2,249,184 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  67,326,029,824 bytes free

.NET Framework Equivalent

System::Environment::CurrentDirectory

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