NAME

chroot — change root directory

SYNOPSIS

chroot

[-G group,group,...] [-g group] [-u user] newroot [command]

DESCRIPTION

The chroot command changes its root directory to the supplied directory newroot and exec's command, or, if not supplied, an interactive copy of your shell.

If the -u, -g, or -G options are given, the user, group, and group list of the process are set to these values after the chroot has taken place; see setgid(2), setgroups(2), setuid(2), getgrnam(3), and getpwnam(3).

Note: command or the shell are run as your real-user-id.

ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variable is referenced by chroot:

SHELL

If set, the string specified by SHELL is interpreted as the name of the shell to exec. If the variable SHELL is not set, /bin/sh is used.

SEE ALSO

ldd(1), chdir(2), chroot(2), environ(7)

HISTORY

The chroot utility first appeared in 4.4BSD.

SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

chroot should never be installed setuid root, as it would then be possible to exploit the program to gain root privileges.