p The .Fn extattr_get_file system call retrieves the value of the specified extended attribute into a buffer pointed to by .Fa data of size .Fa nbytes . The .Fn extattr_set_file system call sets the value of the specified extended attribute to the data described by .Fa data . The .Fn extattr_delete_file system call deletes the extended attribute specified. The .Fn extattr_list_file returns a list of attributes present in the requested namespace. Each list entry consists of a single byte containing the length of the attribute name, followed by the attribute name. The attribute name is not terminated by ASCII 0 (nul). The .Fn extattr_get_file and .Fn extattr_list_file calls consume the .Fa data and .Fa nbytes arguments in the style of .Xr read 2 ; .Fn extattr_set_file consumes these arguments in the style of .Xr write 2 .
p If .Fa data is .Dv NULL in a call to .Fn extattr_get_file then the size of defined extended attribute data will be returned, rather than the quantity read, permitting applications to test the size of the data without performing a read.
p The .Fn extattr_delete_link , .Fn extattr_get_link , and .Fn extattr_set_link system calls behave in the same way as their _file counterparts, except that they do not follow symlinks.
p The .Fn extattr_get_fd , .Fn extattr_set_fd , and .Fn extattr_delete_fd calls are identical to their .Qq Li _file counterparts except for the first argument. The .Qq Li _fd functions take a file descriptor, while the .Qq Li _file functions take a path. Both arguments describe a file associated with the extended attribute that should be manipulated.
p The following arguments are common to all the system calls described here: l -tag -width attrnamespace t Fa attrnamespace the namespace in which the extended attribute resides; see .Xr extattr 9 t Fa attrname the name of the extended attribute .El
p Named extended attribute semantics vary by file system implementing the call. Not all operations may be supported for a particular attribute. Additionally, the format of the data in .Fa data is attribute-specific.
p For more information on named extended attributes, please see .Xr extattr 9 . .Sh RETURN VALUES If successful, the .Fn extattr_get_file and .Fn extattr_set_file calls return the number of bytes that were read or written from the .Fa data , respectively, or if .Fa data was .Dv NULL , then .Fn extattr_get_file returns the number of bytes available to read. If any of the calls are unsuccessful, the value -1 is returned and the global variable .Va errno is set to indicate the error.
p .Rv -std extattr_delete_file .Sh ERRORS The following errors may be returned by the system calls themselves. Additionally, the file system implementing the call may return any other errors it desires. l -tag -width Er t Bq Er EFAULT The .Fa attrnamespace and .Fa attrname arguments, or the memory range defined by .Fa data and .Fa nbytes point outside the process's allocated address space. t Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG The attribute name was longer than .Dv EXTATTR_MAXNAMELEN . .El
p The .Fn extattr_get_fd , .Fn extattr_set_fd , and .Fn extattr_delete_fd system calls may also fail if: l -tag -width Er t Bq Er EBADF The file descriptor referenced by .Fa fd was invalid. .El
p
Additionally, the
.Fn extattr_get_file ,
.Fn extattr_set_file ,
and
.Fn extattr_delete_file
calls may also fail due to the following errors:
l -tag -width Er t Bq Er EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
t Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeded
rq Dv NAME_MAX characters,
or an entire path name exceeded
rq Dv PATH_MAX characters.
t Bq Er ENOENT A component of the path name that must exist does not exist.
t Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
XXX are any missing?
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr getextattr 1 ,
.Xr extattr 3 ,
.Xr extattr 9
.Sh HISTORY
Extended attribute support was developed as part of the
.Tn TrustedBSD
Project, and introduced in
.Fx 5.0
and
.Nx 3.0 .
It was developed to support security extensions requiring additional labels
to be associated with each file or directory.
.Sh CAVEATS
This interface is under active development, and as such is subject to
change as applications are adapted to use it.
Developers are discouraged from relying on its stability.
p Note that previous versions of this man page incorrectly stated that .Fn extattr_list_file returned a list of attribute names separated by ASCII 0 (nul).