extattrctl(8)

NAME

extattrctl - manage UFS1 extended attributes

SYNOPSIS

extattrctl start path
extattrctl stop path
extattrctl initattr [-f] [-p path] attrsize attrfile
extattrctl showattr attrfile
extattrctl enable path attrnamespace attrname attrfile
extattrctl disable path attrnamespace attrname

DESCRIPTION

The extattrctl utility is the management utility for extend
ed attributes
over the UFS1 file system. It allows the starting and stop
ping of
extended attributes on a file system, as well as initializa
tion of
attribute backing files, and enabling and disabling of spe
cific extended
attributes on a file system.
The first argument on the command line indicates the opera
tion to be performed. Operation must be one of the following:
start path
Start extended attribute support on the file system
named using
path. The file system must be an UFS1 file system,
and the
UFS_EXTATTR kernel option must have been enabled.
stop path
Stop extended attribute support on the file system
named using
path. Extended attribute support must previously
have been
started.
initattr [-f] [-p path] attrsize attrfile
Create and initialize a file to use as an attribute
backing file.
You must specify a maximum per-inode size for the
attribute in
bytes in attrsize, as well as the file where the at
tribute will
be stored, using attrfile.
The -f argument may be used to indicate that it is
alright to
overwrite an existing attribute backing file; other
wise, if the
target file exists, an error will be returned.
The -p path argument may be used to preallocate
space for all
attributes rather than relying on sparse files to
conserve space.
This has the advantage of guaranteeing that space
will be available for attributes when they are written, prevent
ing low disk
space conditions from denying attribute service.
This file should not exist before running initattr.
showattr attrfile
Show the attribute header values in the attribute
file named by
attrfile.
enable path attrnamespace attrname attrfile
Enable an attribute named attrname in the namespace
attrnamespace
on the file system identified using path, and backed
by initialized attribute file attrfile. Available namespaces
are "user"
and "system". The backing file must have been ini
tialized using
initattr before its first use. Attributes must have
been started
on the file system prior to the enabling of any at
tributes.
disable path attrnamespace attrname
Disable the attributed named attrname in namespace
attrnamespace
on the file system identified by path. Available
namespaces are
"user" and "system". The file system must have at
tributes
started on it, and the attribute most have been en
abled using
enable.

EXAMPLES

extattrctl start /
Start extended attributes on the root file system.

extattrctl initattr 17 /.attribute/system/md5
Create an attribute backing file in /.attribute/system/md5,
and set the
maximum size of each attribute to 17 bytes, with a sparse
file used for
storing the attributes.

extattrctl enable / system md5 /.attribute/system/md5
Enable an attribute named md5 on the root file system,
backed from the
file /.attribute/system/md5.

extattrctl disable / md5
Disable the attribute named md5 on the root file system.

extattrctl stop /
Stop extended attributes on the root file system.

SEE ALSO

ffs(7), getextattr(8), setextattr(8), extattr(9)

HISTORY

Extended attribute support was developed as part of the
TrustedBSD Project, and introduced in FreeBSD 5.0. It was developed to
support security extensions requiring additional labels to be associated
with each
file or directory.

AUTHORS

Robert N M Watson
BSD March 30, 2000
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