Go back to Previous Directory in Linux using a C program

Question

I am in the directory /home/destination I need to go back to the /home directory. Any ideas on how to implement this using a C-program?

Answer 1

A program can only change its own environment. Thus, the program can chdir but it will not change the current directory of the parent. That's why cd can't be implemented as an external command.

Answer 2

If you'd like to go level up chdir(".."); will do the work. But if you'd like to have behaviour like cd - then you should use this code:

char *prev;
prev = getcwd(prev, 0); /*POSIX.1-2001: will malloc enough memory*/
/*fail if prev is NULL, do something*/
chdir(prev);
free(prev);

Answer 3

You can use the chdir function for this:

chdir(".."); /* change current working directory, go one level up */