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
The new root contains copies of all the essential files and
directories, e.g. /lib, /dev/tty, /tmp.
(1996-12-08)