Network, Computer and Programming Resources

Linux top 50 cmd - Chroot

The chroot command makes the / directory (called the root directory) be something other than / on the filesystem. For example, when working with an Internet server, you can set the root directory to equal /usr/ftp. Then, when someone logs on using FTP (which goes to the root directory by default), he or she will actually go to the directory /usr/ftp. This protects the rest of your directory structure from being seen or even changed to by this anonymous guest to your machine. If the person were to enter cd /etc, the ftp program would try to put him or her in the root directory and then in the etc directory off of that. Because the root directory is /usr/ftp, the ftp program will actually put the user in the /usr/ftp/etc directory (assuming there is one). The syntax for the command is chroot <original filesystem location> <new filesystem location>