CHROOT(8)

NAME
chroot - change root directory

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

DESCRIPTION
The chroot command changes its root directory to the supplied directory newroot and exec's command, if supplied, or 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
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.