xref: /dflybsd-src/share/man/man9/extattr.9 (revision 86d7f5d305c6adaa56ff4582ece9859d73106103)
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28*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Dd May 8, 2010
29*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Dt EXTATTR 9
30*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Os
31*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Sh NAME
32*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Nm extattr
33*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Nd virtual file system named extended attributes
34*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Sh SYNOPSIS
35*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.In sys/param.h
36*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.In sys/vnode.h
37*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.In sys/extattr.h
38*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Sh DESCRIPTION
39*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoNamed extended attributes allow additional meta-data to be associated
40*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinowith vnodes representing files and directories.
41*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoThe semantics of this additional data is that of a "name=value" pair, where
42*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinoa name may be defined or undefined, and if defined, associated with zero or
43*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinomore bytes of arbitrary binary data.
44*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Pp
45*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoReads of extended attribute data may return specific contiguous regions of
46*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinothe meta-data, in the style of
47*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Xr VOP_READ 9 ,
48*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinobut writes will replace the entire current "value" associated with
49*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinoa given name.
50*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoAs there are a plethora of file systems with differing extended attributes,
51*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinoavailability and functionality of these functions may be limited, and they
52*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinoshould be used with awareness of the underlying semantics of the supporting
53*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinofile system.
54*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoAuthorization schemes for extended attribute data may also vary by file
55*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinosystem, as well as maximum attribute size, and whether or not any or
56*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinospecific new attributes may be defined.
57*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Pp
58*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoExtended attributes are named using a null-terminated character string.
59*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoDepending on underlying file system semantics, this name may or may not be
60*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinocase-sensitive.
61*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoAppropriate vnode extended attribute calls are:
62*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Xr VOP_GETEXTATTR 9
63*86d7f5d3SJohn Marinoand
64*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Xr VOP_SETEXTATTR 9 .
65*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Sh SEE ALSO
66*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Xr VFS 9 ,
67*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Xr VOP_GETEXTATTR 9 ,
68*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Xr VOP_SETEXTATTR 9
69*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.Sh AUTHORS
70*86d7f5d3SJohn MarinoThis manual page was written by
71*86d7f5d3SJohn Marino.An Robert Watson .
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