listxattr.2, xattr.7: Describe listxattr(2) E2BIG error and document it as a BUG

Signed-off-by: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>

diff --git a/man2/listxattr.2 b/man2/listxattr.2
index f49a501ddcfc653cdf76d885f85c2392af39dd36..82a3a77be7d520a991b54d02f9680b246edf7804 100644 (file)
--- a/man2/listxattr.2
+++ b/man2/listxattr.2
@@ -135,6 +135,11 @@ On failure, \-1 is returned and
 is set appropriately.
 .SH ERRORS
 .TP
+.B E2BIG
+The size of the list of attribute names for this file exceeds
+the system-imposed limit.
+See BUSG.
+.TP
 .B ENOTSUP
 Extended attributes are not supported by the filesystem, or are disabled.
 .TP
@@ -315,6 +320,15 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
     exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
 }
 .fi
+.SH BUGS
+.\" The xattr(7) page refers to this text:
+As noted in
+.BR xattr (7),
+the VFS imposes a limit of 64 kB on the size of the extended
+attribute name list returned by
+.BR listxattr (7).
+If the total size of attribute names attached to a file exceeds this limit,
+it is no longer possible to retrieve the list of attribute names.
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .BR getfattr (1),
 .BR setfattr (1),

diff --git a/man7/xattr.7 b/man7/xattr.7
index f88110e6d04845290b6e1069827f7a35b1e3bab3..61f5db4cd78bbb446852f2cede778d53649f63d2 100644 (file)
--- a/man7/xattr.7
+++ b/man7/xattr.7
@@ -139,7 +139,9 @@ and size of extended attributes that can be associated with a file.
 The VFS imposes limitations that an attribute names is limited to 255 bytes
 and an attribute value is limited to 64 kB.
 The list of attribute names that
-can be returned is also limited to 64 kB.
+can be returned is also limited to 64 kB
+(see BUGS in
+.BR listxattr (2)).
 
 Some filesystems, such as Reiserfs (and, historically, ext2 and ext3),
 require the filesystem to be mounted with the