| NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | VERSIONS | CONFORMING TO | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON | The Linux Programming Interface |
SETXATTR(2) Linux Programmer's Manual SETXATTR(2)
setxattr, lsetxattr, fsetxattr - set an extended attribute value
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <attr/xattr.h>
int setxattr(const char *path, const char *name,
const void *value, size_t size, int flags);
int lsetxattr(const char *path, const char *name,
const void *value, size_t size, int flags);
int fsetxattr(int fd, const char *name,
const void *value, size_t size, int flags);
Extended attributes are name:value pairs associated with inodes
(files, directories, symbolic links, etc.). They are extensions to
the normal attributes which are associated with all inodes in the
system (i.e., the stat(2) data). A complete overview of extended
attributes concepts can be found in attr(5).
setxattr() sets the value of the extended attribute identified by
name and associated with the given path in the file system. The size
of the value must be specified.
lsetxattr() is identical to setxattr(), except in the case of a
symbolic link, where the extended attribute is set on the link
itself, not the file that it refers to.
fsetxattr() is identical to setxattr(), only the extended attribute
is set on the open file referred to by fd (as returned by open(2)) in
place of path.
An extended attribute name is a simple null-terminated string. The
name includes a namespace prefix; there may be several, disjoint
namespaces associated with an individual inode. The value of an
extended attribute is a chunk of arbitrary textual or binary data of
specified length.
The flags argument can be used to refine the semantics of the
operation. XATTR_CREATE specifies a pure create, which fails if the
named attribute exists already. XATTR_REPLACE specifies a pure
replace operation, which fails if the named attribute does not
already exist. By default (no flags), the extended attribute will be
created if need be, or will simply replace the value if the attribute
exists.
On success, zero is returned. On failure, -1 is returned and errno
is set appropriately.
EDQUOT Disk quota limits meant that there is insufficient space
remaining to store the extended attribute.
EEXIST XATTR_CREATE was specified, and the attribute exists already.
ENOATTR
XATTR_REPLACE was specified, and the attribute does not exist.
(ENOATTR is defined to be a synonym for ENODATA in
<attr/xattr.h>.)
ENOSPC There is insufficient space remaining to store the extended
attribute.
ENOTSUP
Extended attributes are not supported by the file system, or
are disabled, errno is set to ENOTSUP.
In addition, the errors documented in stat(2) can also occur.
These system calls have been available on Linux since kernel 2.4;
glibc support is provided since version 2.3.
These system calls are Linux-specific.
getfattr(1), setfattr(1), getxattr(2), listxattr(2), open(2),
removexattr(2), stat(2), attr(5), symlink(7)
This page is part of release 3.51 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2013-01-19 SETXATTR(2)
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