xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/chroot/chroot.8 (revision cb2887746f8b9dd4ad6b1e757cdc053a08b25a2e)
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28.Dd July 25, 2025
29.Dt CHROOT 8
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm chroot
33.Nd change root directory
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Nm
36.Op Fl G Ar group Ns Op Cm \&, Ns Ar group  ...
37.Op Fl g Ar group
38.Op Fl u Ar user
39.Op Fl n
40.Ar newroot
41.Op Ar command Op Ar arg ...
42.Sh DESCRIPTION
43The
44.Nm
45utility changes its current and root directories to the supplied directory
46.Ar newroot
47and then exec's
48.Ar command
49with provided arguments, if supplied,
50or an interactive copy of the user's login shell.
51.Pp
52The options are as follows:
53.Bl -tag -width "-G group[,group ...]"
54.It Fl G Ar group Ns Op Cm \&, Ns Ar group  ...
55Run the command with the specified groups as supplementary groups.
56.It Fl g Ar group
57Run the command with the specified
58.Ar group
59as the real, effective and saved groups.
60.It Fl u Ar user
61Run the command with the specified
62.Ar user
63as the real, effective and saved users.
64.It Fl n
65Use the
66.Dv PROC_NO_NEW_PRIVS_CTL
67.Xr procctl 2
68command before chrooting, effectively disabling SUID/SGID bits
69for the calling process and its descendants.
70If
71.Dv security.bsd.unprivileged_chroot
72sysctl is set to 1, it will make it possible to chroot without
73superuser privileges.
74.El
75.Sh ENVIRONMENT
76The following environment variable is referenced by
77.Nm :
78.Bl -tag -width "SHELL"
79.It Ev SHELL
80If set,
81the string specified by
82.Ev SHELL
83is interpreted as the name of
84the shell to exec.
85If the variable
86.Ev SHELL
87is not set,
88.Pa /bin/sh
89is used.
90.El
91.Sh EXAMPLES
92.Bl -tag -width 0n
93.It Sy Example 1\&: No Chrooting into a New Root Directory
94.Pp
95The following command opens the
96.Xr csh 1
97shell after chrooting to the standard root directory.
98.Bd -literal -offset 2n
99.Li # Ic chroot / /bin/csh
100.Ed
101.It Sy Example 2\&: No Execution of a Command with a Changed Root Directory
102.Pp
103The following command changes a root directory with
104.Nm
105and then runs
106.Xr ls 1
107to list the contents of
108.Pa /sbin .
109.Bd -literal -offset 2n
110.Li # Ic chroot /tmp/testroot ls /sbin
111.Ed
112.El
113.Sh SEE ALSO
114.Xr chdir 2 ,
115.Xr chroot 2 ,
116.Xr setgid 2 ,
117.Xr setgroups 2 ,
118.Xr setuid 2 ,
119.Xr getgrnam 3 ,
120.Xr environ 7 ,
121.Xr jail 8
122.Sh HISTORY
123The
124.Nm
125utility first appeared in
126.At III
127and
128.Bx 4.3 Reno .
129