1 .\" Copyright (C) Andreas Gruenbacher, February 2001
2 .\" Copyright (C) Silicon Graphics Inc, September 2001
4 .\" %%%LICENSE_START(GPLv2+_DOC_FULL)
5 .\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or
6 .\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
7 .\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
8 .\" the License, or (at your option) any later version.
10 .\" The GNU General Public License's references to "object code"
11 .\" and "executables" are to be interpreted as the output of any
12 .\" document formatting or typesetting system, including
13 .\" intermediate and printed output.
15 .\" This manual is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
16 .\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
17 .\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
18 .\" GNU General Public License for more details.
20 .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
21 .\" License along with this manual; if not, see
22 .\" <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
25 .TH SETXATTR 2 2021-03-22 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
27 setxattr, lsetxattr, fsetxattr \- set an extended attribute value
31 .B #include <sys/xattr.h>
33 .BI "int setxattr(const char\ *" path ", const char\ *" name ,
34 .BI " const void\ *" value ", size_t " size ", int " flags );
35 .BI "int lsetxattr(const char\ *" path ", const char\ *" name ,
36 .BI " const void\ *" value ", size_t " size ", int " flags );
37 .BI "int fsetxattr(int " fd ", const char\ *" name ,
38 .BI " const void\ *" value ", size_t " size ", int " flags );
42 Extended attributes are
45 pairs associated with inodes (files, directories, symbolic links, etc.).
46 They are extensions to the normal attributes which are associated
47 with all inodes in the system (i.e., the
50 A complete overview of extended attributes concepts can be found in
56 of the extended attribute identified by
58 and associated with the given
63 argument specifies the size (in bytes) of
65 a zero-length value is permitted.
70 except in the case of a symbolic link, where the extended attribute is
71 set on the link itself, not the file that it refers to.
76 only the extended attribute is set on the open file referred to by
83 An extended attribute name is a null-terminated string.
86 includes a namespace prefix; there may be several, disjoint
87 namespaces associated with an individual inode.
90 of an extended attribute is a chunk of arbitrary textual or
91 binary data of specified length.
97 the extended attribute will be created if it does not exist,
98 or the value will be replaced if the attribute already exists.
99 To modify these semantics, one of the following values can be specified in
103 Perform a pure create, which fails if the named attribute exists already.
106 Perform a pure replace operation,
107 which fails if the named attribute does not already exist.
109 On success, zero is returned.
110 On failure, \-1 is returned and
112 is set to indicate the error.
116 Disk quota limits meant that
117 there is insufficient space remaining to store the extended attribute.
121 was specified, and the attribute exists already.
125 was specified, and the attribute does not exist.
127 .\" is defined to be a synonym for
130 .\" .IR <attr/attributes.h> .)
133 There is insufficient space remaining to store the extended attribute.
136 The namespace prefix of
141 Extended attributes are not supported by the filesystem, or are disabled,
144 The file is marked immutable or append-only.
146 .BR ioctl_iflags (2).)
148 In addition, the errors documented in
157 exceeds a filesystem-specific limit.
159 These system calls have been available on Linux since kernel 2.4;
160 glibc support is provided since version 2.3.
162 These system calls are Linux-specific.
164 .\" Andreas Gruenbacher,
165 .\" .RI < a.gruenbacher@computer.org >
166 .\" and the SGI XFS development team,
167 .\" .RI < linux-xfs@oss.sgi.com >.
168 .\" Please send any bug reports or comments to these addresses.