NAMED_ATTRIBUTE(7)

NAME
named_attribute - Solaris-like extended attribute system interface

DESCRIPTION
Description of the system interface for named attributes (the NFS Version 4 terminology).

  Introduction
This document describes an alternate system interface for extended attributes as compared to extattr(2). It is based on the interface provided by Solaris and NFS Version 4.

This interface associates a directory, known as a named attribute directory, to a file system object. This directory is read in the same manner as a normal directory via the getdents(2) or getdirentries(2) system calls. The ~. and.. entries refer to the directory itself and to the associated file object, respectively. The other entries in this directory are the names of the extended attributes for the associated file object and are referred to as named attributes. These named attributes are regular files used to store the attribute's value.

A named attribute directory does not live in the file system's name space. It is accessed via an open(2) or openat(2) system call done on a file to query the named attributes for the file, with the O_NAMEDATTR flag specified and a path argument of ~.. This file descriptor can be used as the fd argument for a variety of system calls, such as: fchdir(2), unlinkat(2) and renameat(2). renameat(2) is only permitted to rename a named attribute within the same named attribute directory.

When a file descriptor for a file object in the file system's namespace is used as the fd argument of an openat(2) along with the flag O_NAMEDATTR and a path argument that is the name of a named attribute (not ~. or.. ), a file descriptor for the named attribute is returned. If the flag O_CREAT is specified, the named attribute will be created if it does not exist. The path argument must be a single component name, with no embedded “/” in it. I/O on these named attribute file descriptors may be performed by standard I/O system calls such as: read(2), write(2), lseek(2) and ftruncate(2).

The _PC_NAMEDATTR_ENABLED name argument to pathconf(2) will return 1 if the file system supports named attributes. The _PC_HAS_NAMEDATTR name argument to pathconf(2) will return 1 if there are one or more named attributes for the file. If an application does a openat(2) of “”. to open a named attribute directory when no named attribute directory exists, an empty named attribute directory will be created. Testing _PC_HAS_NAMEDATTR can be done to avoid creating these named attribute directories unnecessarily.

The named attribute interface is a different mechanism/system call interface for manipulating extended attributes compared with extattr(2). Although the named attribute machanism might require different internal implementation of extended attributes within a file system, both ZFS and NFSv4 provide both mechanisms, which can be used interchangeably to manipulate extended attributes, but with a few limitations.

•   The extattr(2) interface requires that an extended attribute's value be set or acquired via a single system call using a single buffer. This limits the size of the attribute's value.

•   The named attribute interface does not support system namespace extended attributes and, as such, system namespace extended attributes must be manipulated via extattr(2).

•   For ZFS, if an extended attribute with a value that is a small length in bytes is created when the ZFS xattr property is set to “sa”, that extended attribute is only visible via extattr(2) and not as a named attribute. Archiving/de-archiving the file via tar(1) after setting the xattr property to “dir” will make the attribute(s) visible as both named attributes and via extattr(2).

•   For ZFS, it is also possible to create two attributes with the same name by creating one when the ZFS xattr property is set to “sa” and then creating another one with the same name after the ZFS property xattr has been changed to “dir”. The one created when the ZFS xattr property is set to “sa” may be removed via rmextattr(8).

•   To avoid these issues for ZFS, it is strongly recommended that the ZFS property xattr be set to “dir” as soon as the file system is created, if named attributes are to be used on the file system.

The named attribute mechanism/system call interface provides certain advantages over extattr(2). Since the attribute's value is updated via read(2) and write(2) system calls, the attribute's data may be as large as any regular file and may be partially updated. (Note that this interface does not provide the atomicity guarantee that extattr(2) does.) The permission to access a named attribute directory is determined from the access control information for the associated file object. However, access control information can be set on each individual attribute in a manner similar to a regular file. This provides “per attribute” granular control over attribute permissions via fchown(2).

At this time, the only local file system which supports this interface is ZFS and only if the xattr property is set to “dir”. (Note that, even when “zfs get xattr <file-system>” shows “on” the command “zfs set xattr=dir <file-system>” must be done, followed by a remount to make the setting take effect.) A NFSv4 mount will also support this interface, but only if the NFSv4 server file system supports named attributes (the openattr operation). The FreeBSD NFSv4 server supports named attributes only for ZFS exported file systems where the “xattr” property is set to “dir” for the file system.

EXAMPLES

    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <dirent.h>
    #include <fcntl.h>
    #include <unistd.h>
    ...
    /* For a file called "myfile". Failure checks removed for brevity. */
    int file_fd, nameddir_fd, namedattr_fd;
    ssize_t siz;
    char buf[DIRBLKSIZ], *cp;
    struct dirent *dp;
    long named_enabled, has_named_attrs;
    ...
    /* Check to see if named attributes are supported. */
    named_enabled = pathconf("myfile", _PC_NAMEDATTR_ENABLED);
    if (named_enabled <= 0)
    	err(1, "Named attributes not enabled");
    /* Test to see if named attribute(s) exist for the file. */
    has_named_attrs = pathconf("myfile", _PC_HAS_NAMEDATTR);
    if (has_named_attrs == 1)
    	printf("myfile has named attribute(s)\n");
    else
    	printf("myfile does not have any named attributes\n");
    /* Open a named attribute directory. */
    file_fd = open("myfile", O_RDONLY, 0);
    nameddir_fd = openat(file_fd, ".", O_NAMEDATTR, 0);
    ...
    /* and read it, assuming it all fits in DIRBLKSIZ for simplicity. */
    siz = getdents(fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
    cp = buf;
    while (cp < &buf[siz]) {
    	dp = (struct dirent *)cp;
    	printf("name=%s\n", dp->d_name);
    	cp += dp->d_reclen;
    }
    ...
    /* Open/create a named attribute called "foo". */
    namedattr_fd = openat(file_fd, "foo", O_CREAT | O_RDWR |
        O_TRUNC | O_NAMEDATTR, 0600);
    ...
    /* Write foo's attribute value. */
    write(namedattr_fd, "xxxyyy", 6);
    ...
    /* Read foo's attribute value. */
    lseek(namedattr_fd, 0, SEEK_SET);
    siz = read(namedattr_fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
    ...
    /* And close "foo". */
    close(namedattr_fd);
    ...
    /* Rename "foo" to "oldfoo". */
    renameat(nameddir_fd, "foo", nameddir_fd, "oldfoo");
    /* and delete "oldfoo". */
    unlinkat(nameddir_fd, "oldfoo", AT_RESOLVE_BENEATH);

The runat(1) command may be used to perform shell commands on named attributes. For example:

    $ runat myfile cp /etc/hosts attrhosts	# creates attrhosts
    $ runat myfile cat attrhosts		# displays contents of attrhosts
    $ runat myfile ls -l			# lists the attributes for myfile

If using the bash(1) shell, the command “cd -@ foo” enters the named attribute directory for the file object “foo”.

SEE ALSO
bash(1), runat(1), tar(1), chdir(2), extattr(2), lseek(2), open(2), pathconf(2), read(2), rename(2), truncate(2), unlinkat(2), write(2), zfsprops(7), rmextattr(8)

HISTORY
This interface first appeared in FreeBSD 15.0.