DESCRIPTION

Extended attributes are name:value pairs associated with inodes (files, directories, symbolic links, etc.). They are extensions to the normal attributes which are associated with all inodes in the system (i.e., the stat(2) data). A complete overview of extended attributes concepts can be found in attr(5).

removexattr() removes the extended attribute identified by name and associated with the given path in the file system.

lremovexattr() is identical to removexattr(), except in the case of a symbolic link, where the extended attribute is removed from the link itself, not the file that it refers to.

fremovexattr() is identical to removexattr(), only the extended attribute is removed from the open file referred to by fd (as returned by open(2)) in place of path.

An extended attribute name is a simple null-terminated string. The name includes a namespace prefix; there may be several, disjoint namespaces associated with an individual inode.

RETURN VALUE

On success, zero is returned. On failure, −1 is returned and errno is set appropriately.

If the named attribute does not exist, errno is set to ENOATTR.

If extended attributes are not supported by the file system, or are disabled, errno is set to ENOTSUP.

The errors documented for the stat(2) system call are also applicable here.

VERSIONS

These system calls have been available on Linux since kernel 2.4; glibc support is provided since version 2.3.

CONFORMING TO

These system calls are Linux-specific.

SEE ALSO

getfattr(1), setfattr(1), getxattr(2), listxattr(2), open(2), setxattr(2), stat(2), attr(5), symlink(7)