How can I change my current directory in a c program?

Question

I'm new in c programming and I'm asking for a simple way to change my current directory in a programm. I tried to use system("new path") but it didn't work.

Answer 1

The reason it is not working is that system is starting a separate process, changing its working directory, then exiting. Your program needs to change its own directory by calling chdir .

Answer 2

If you're using a unix based OS, use chdir() . For windows you'll have to use _chdir() , although an alias chdir exists, it is deprecated.

Both the functions return 0 on success and -1 if an error occurred.

You can only change the directory in which the program executes. You can't change the working directory of your shell.