chroot

operating system The UNIX command to make the rootdirectory (/) become something other than its default for the

lifetime of the current process. It can only be run by

privileged users and is used to give a process (commonly a

network server such as FTP or HTTP) access to a restricted

portion of the file system.

The new root contains copies of all the essential files and

directories, e.g. /lib, /dev/tty, /tmp.

(1996-12-08)