diff -pruN spawn-fcgi-1.6.0.orig/src/spawn-fcgi.c spawn-fcgi-1.6.0/src/spawn-fcgi.c
--- spawn-fcgi-1.6.0.orig/src/spawn-fcgi.c	2009-03-05 16:43:00.160440493 +0100
+++ spawn-fcgi-1.6.0/src/spawn-fcgi.c	2009-03-05 16:55:17.840995588 +0100
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
 typedef int socklen_t;
 #endif
 
-static int fcgi_spawn_connection(char *appPath, char **appArgv, char *addr, unsigned short port, const char *unixsocket, int fork_count, int child_count, int pid_fd, int nofork) {
+static int fcgi_spawn_connection(char *appPath, const char *fcgi_dir, char **appArgv, char *addr, unsigned short port, const char *unixsocket, int fork_count, int child_count, int pid_fd, int nofork) {
 	int fcgi_fd;
 	int socket_type, status, rc = 0;
 	struct timeval tv = { 0, 100 * 1000 };
@@ -206,6 +206,11 @@ static int fcgi_spawn_connection(char *a
 				strcat(b, appPath);
 
 				/* exec the cgi */
+				if (fcgi_dir) {
+					if (chdir(fcgi_dir) != 0) {
+						exit(errno);
+					}
+				}
 				execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", b, (char *)NULL);
 			}
 
@@ -347,6 +352,7 @@ static void show_help () {
 "\n" \
 "Options:\n" \
 " -f <path>    filename of the fcgi-application (ignored if <fcgiapp> is given)\n" \
+" -d <dir>     chdir to directory before spawning\n" \
 " -a <addr>    bind to ip address\n" \
 " -p <port>    bind to tcp-port\n" \
 " -s <path>    bind to unix-domain socket\n" \
@@ -367,7 +373,7 @@ static void show_help () {
 
 
 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
-	char *fcgi_app = NULL, *changeroot = NULL, *username = NULL,
+	char *fcgi_app = NULL, *fcgi_dir = NULL, *changeroot = NULL, *username = NULL,
 	     *groupname = NULL, *unixsocket = NULL, *pid_file = NULL,
 	     *addr = NULL;
 	char **fcgi_app_argv = { NULL };
@@ -386,9 +392,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
 
 	i_am_root = (getuid() == 0);
 
-	while (-1 != (o = getopt(argc, argv, "c:f:g:?hna:p:u:vC:F:s:P:"))) {
+	while (-1 != (o = getopt(argc, argv, "c:f:d:g:?hna:p:u:vC:F:s:P:"))) {
 		switch(o) {
 		case 'f': fcgi_app = optarg; break;
+		case 'd': fcgi_dir = optarg; break;
 		case 'a': addr = optarg;/* ip addr */ break;
 		case 'p': port = strtol(optarg, NULL, 10);/* port */ break;
 		case 'C': child_count = strtol(optarg, NULL, 10);/*  */ break;
@@ -507,5 +514,5 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	return fcgi_spawn_connection(fcgi_app, fcgi_app_argv, addr, port, unixsocket, fork_count, child_count, pid_fd, nofork);
+	return fcgi_spawn_connection(fcgi_app, fcgi_dir, fcgi_app_argv, addr, port, unixsocket, fork_count, child_count, pid_fd, nofork);
 }