man2/removexattr.2

   1 .\" Extended attributes system calls manual pages
   2 .\"
   3 .\" Copyright (C) Andreas Gruenbacher, February 2001
   4 .\" Copyright (C) Silicon Graphics Inc, September 2001
   5 .\"
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  27 .TH REMOVEXATTR 2 2013-01-19 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
  28 .SH NAME
  29 removexattr, lremovexattr, fremovexattr \- remove an extended attribute
  30 .SH SYNOPSIS
  31 .fam C
  32 .nf
  33 .B #include <sys/types.h>
  34 .B #include <attr/xattr.h>
  35 .sp
  36 .BI "int removexattr(const char\ *" path ", const char\ *" name );
  37 .BI "int lremovexattr(const char\ *" path ", const char\ *" name );
  38 .BI "int fremovexattr(int " fd ", const char\ *" name );
  39 .fi
  40 .fam T
  41 .SH DESCRIPTION
  42 Extended attributes are
  43 .IR name :\c
  44 value pairs associated with inodes (files, directories, symbolic links, etc.).
  45 They are extensions to the normal attributes which are associated
  46 with all inodes in the system (i.e., the
  47 .BR stat (2)
  48 data).
  49 A complete overview of extended attributes concepts can be found in
  50 .BR attr (5).
  51 .PP
  52 .BR removexattr ()
  53 removes the extended attribute identified by
  54 .I name
  55 and associated with the given
  56 .I path
  57 in the file system.
  58 .PP
  59 .BR lremovexattr ()
  60 is identical to
  61 .BR removexattr (),
  62 except in the case of a symbolic link, where the extended attribute is
  63 removed from the link itself, not the file that it refers to.
  64 .PP
  65 .BR fremovexattr ()
  66 is identical to
  67 .BR removexattr (),
  68 only the extended attribute is removed from the open file referred to by
  69 .I fd
  70 (as returned by
  71 .BR open (2))
  72 in place of
  73 .IR path .
  74 .PP
  75 An extended attribute name is a simple null-terminated string.
  76 The
  77 .I name
  78 includes a namespace prefix; there may be several, disjoint
  79 namespaces associated with an individual inode.
  80 .SH RETURN VALUE
  81 On success, zero is returned.
  82 On failure, \-1 is returned and
  83 .I errno
  84 is set appropriately.
  85 .SH ERRORS
  86 .TP
  87 .B ENOATTR
  88 The named attribute does not exist.
  89 .RB ( ENOATTR
  90 is defined to be a synonym for
  91 .BR ENODATA
  92 in
  93 .IR <attr/xattr.h> .)
  94 .TP
  95 .B ENOTSUP
  96 Extended attributes are not supported by the file system, or are disabled.
  97 .PP
  98 In addition, the errors documented in
  99 .BR stat (2)
 100 can also occur.
 101 .SH VERSIONS
 102 These system calls have been available on Linux since kernel 2.4;
 103 glibc support is provided since version 2.3.
 104 .SH CONFORMING TO
 105 These system calls are Linux-specific.
 106 .\" .SH AUTHORS
 107 .\" Andreas Gruenbacher,
 108 .\" .RI < a.gruenbacher@computer.org >
 109 .\" and the SGI XFS development team,
 110 .\" .RI < linux-xfs@oss.sgi.com >.
 111 .\" Please send any bug reports or comments to these addresses.
 112 .SH SEE ALSO
 113 .BR getfattr (1),
 114 .BR setfattr (1),
 115 .BR getxattr (2),
 116 .BR listxattr (2),
 117 .BR open (2),
 118 .BR setxattr (2),
 119 .BR stat (2),
 120 .BR attr (5),
 121 .BR symlink (7)