xattr(1)

WARNING:

This is not the man page of a xattr utility included in any major operating system distribution.
It is the man page of a binary xattr utility developed primarily for Darwin/OS X.
Recent (2011) review has revealed that the code was left in a state of disrepair when last updated; the current version will not compile into a working utility.
A low-priority effort to remedy this situation is under way, and this notice will be removed when debugging on the part of the end-user is no longer a necessity.

NAME

xattr - Manipulate the extended attributes of files.

SYNOPSIS

xattr		[-sl]		<path...>
xattr	-p	[-sl]	name	<path...>
xattr	-d	[-sl]	name	<path...>
xattr	-w	[-slRC]	name value	<path...>

DESCRIPTION

With the xattr command, the extended attributes of one or more files may be listed, written (set), printed (displayed), or deleted.

Extended attributes allow the arbitrary association of name:data pairs with file system objects (file, directories, symbolic links, et cetera). The name of an extended attribute may be any null-terminated UTF-8 string. The data associated with it may be either textual or binary.

This implimentation of the xattr command is designed to be backwards-compatible with the python script that shipped as /usr/bin/xattr with Macintosh OS 10.5.0 (Leopard). The display format has been changed slightly for use in shell scripts.

By default, xattr lists the extended attributes associate with the file object at the specified path. Alternate behavior is triggered by the use of a command flag.

CONTRIBUTIONS SOLICITED

Feedback regarding bugs, missing functionality, or documentation issues.

Code verification or correction by more experienced developers.

All inquiries welcome.

COMMANDS

	default	List the extended attributes of the given file objects.
	-p	Display (print) the value of a given extended attribute for each file object.
	-d	Delete an existing extended attribute from all of the file objects.
	-w	Set (write) a given extended attribute of the file objects to a given value.

	-v	Display version information.
	-h	Display help.

OPTIONS

	-s	Do not follow symbolic links.
	-l	Display results in extended format.
	-R	Expect to edit existing extended attributes; fail rather than create a new one.
	-C	Expect to create new extended attributes; fail rather than edit an existing one.

FILES

/usr/local/bin/xattr	the xattr executable.
/usr/share/man/xattr.1	this page.

DOWNLOAD

svn co https://xattr.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xattr xattr	access via subversion.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xattr	the xattr package at Sourceforge (depreciated method).

BUGS

None currently known. However, this implimentation of the xattr command was written by a computer hobbyist; the source code has not, as of v0.3, been reviewed by an experienced C programmer.

LICENSE

MIT licensed open-source software. (C) Matt Lye 2008. (see COPYING.TXT in repository or package.)

CREDITS

Bob Ippolito and Marquis Logan deserve much credit for their versions of xattr, written for python (as seen here) and with CoreFoundation (over here), respectively. I first encountered extended attributes in the arstechnica article I have cited.