.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2025 Rick Macklem
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
.\"
.Dd August 5, 2025
.Dt NAMED_ATTRIBUTE 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm named_attribute
.Nd Solaris-like extended attribute system interface
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Description of the system interface for named attributes
(the NFS Version 4 terminology).
.Ss Introduction
This document describes an alternate system interface for extended
attributes as compared to
.Xr extattr 2 .
It is based on the interface provided by Solaris and NFS Version 4.
.Pp
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
.Xr getdents 2
or
.Xr getdirentries 2
system calls.
The
.Pa .\&
and
.Pa ..\&
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.
.Pp
A named attribute directory does not live in the file system's name space.
It is accessed via an
.Xr open 2
or
.Xr openat 2
system call done on a file to query the named attributes for the file,
with the
.Dv O_NAMEDATTR
flag specified and a
.Fa path
argument of
.Pa .\& .
This file descriptor can be used as the
.Fa fd
argument for a variety of system calls, such as:
.Xr fchdir 2 ,
.Xr unlinkat 2
and
.Xr renameat 2 .
.Xr renameat 2
is only permitted to rename a named attribute within the same named
attribute directory.
.Pp
When a file descriptor for a file object in the file system's namespace
is used as the
.Fa fd
argument of an
.Xr openat 2
along with the
.Fa flag
.Dv O_NAMEDATTR
and a
.Fa path
argument that is the name of a named attribute (not
.Pa .\&
or
.Pa ..\&
), a file descriptor for the named attribute is returned.
If the
.Fa flag
.Dv O_CREAT
is specified, the named attribute will be created if it does not exist.
The
.Fa path
argument must be a single component name, with no embedded
.Dq /
in it.
I/O on these named attribute file descriptors may be performed by
standard I/O system calls
such as:
.Xr read 2 ,
.Xr write 2 ,
.Xr lseek 2
and
.Xr ftruncate 2 .
.Pp
The
.Dv _PC_NAMEDATTR_ENABLED
.Fa name
argument to
.Xr pathconf 2
will return 1 if the file system supports named attributes.
The
.Dv _PC_HAS_NAMEDATTR
.Fa name
argument to
.Xr pathconf 2
will return 1 if there are one or more named attributes for the file.
If an application does a
.Xr openat 2
of
.Dq .\&
to open a named attribute directory when no named attribute directory exists,
an empty named attribute directory will be created.
Testing
.Dv _PC_HAS_NAMEDATTR
can be done to avoid creating these named attribute directories unnecessarily.
.Pp
The named attribute interface is a different mechanism/system call interface for
manipulating extended attributes compared with
.Xr 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.
.Bl -bullet
.It
The
.Xr 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.
.It
The named attribute interface does not support system namespace
extended attributes and,
as such, system namespace extended attributes must be manipulated via
.Xr extattr 2 .
.It
For ZFS, if an extended attribute with a value
that is a small length in bytes is created when the ZFS
.Dv xattr
property is set to
.Dq sa ,
that extended attribute is only visible via
.Xr extattr 2
and not as a named attribute.
Archiving/de-archiving the file via
.Xr tar 1
after setting the
.Dv xattr
property to
.Dq dir
will make the attribute(s) visible as both named attributes
and via
.Xr extattr 2 .
.It
For ZFS, it is also possible to create two attributes with the same
name by creating one when the ZFS
.Dv xattr
property is set to
.Dq sa
and then creating another one with the same name after the ZFS
property
.Dv xattr
has been changed to
.Dq dir .
The one created when the ZFS
.Dv xattr
property is set to
.Dq sa
may be removed via
.Xr rmextattr 8 .
.It
To avoid these issues for ZFS, it is strongly recommended that the ZFS
property
.Dv xattr
be set to
.Dq dir
as soon as the file system is created, if named attributes
are to be used on the file system.
.El
.Pp
The named attribute mechanism/system call interface provides certain
advantages over
.Xr extattr 2 .
Since the attribute's value is updated via
.Xr read 2
and
.Xr 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
.Xr 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
.Dq per attribute
granular control over attribute permissions via
.Xr fchown 2 .
.Pp
At this time, the only local file system which supports this interface
is ZFS and only if the
.Dv xattr
property is set to
.Dq dir .
(Note that, even when
.Dq zfs get xattr <file-system>
shows
.Dq on
the command
.Dq 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
.Fx
NFSv4 server supports named attributes only
for ZFS exported file systems where the
.Dq xattr
property is set to
.Dq dir
for the file system.
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Bd -literal
#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);
.Ed
.Pp
The
.Xr runat 1
command may be used to perform shell commands on named attributes.
For example:
.Bd -literal
$ 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
.Ed
.Pp
If using the
.Xr bash 1
shell, the command
.Dq cd -@ foo
enters the named attribute directory for the file object
.Dq foo .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr bash 1 ,
.Xr runat 1 ,
.Xr tar 1 ,
.Xr chdir 2 ,
.Xr extattr 2 ,
.Xr lseek 2 ,
.Xr open 2 ,
.Xr pathconf 2 ,
.Xr read 2 ,
.Xr rename 2 ,
.Xr truncate 2 ,
.Xr unlinkat 2 ,
.Xr write 2 ,
.Xr zfsprops 7 ,
.Xr rmextattr 8
.Sh HISTORY
This interface first appeared in
.Fx 15.0 .
