NAME

File::ExtAttr - Perl extension for accessing extended attributes of files

SYNOPSIS

use File::ExtAttr ':all';
use IO::File;

# Manipulate the extended attributes of files.
setfattr('foo.txt', 'user.colour', 'red') || die;
my $colour = getfattr('bar.txt', 'user.colour');
if (defined($colour))
{
    print $colour;
    delfattr('bar.txt', 'user.colour');
}

# Manipulate the extended attributes of a file via a file handle.
my $fh = new IO::File('<foo.txt') || die;
setfattr($fh, 'user.colour', 'red') || die;

$fh = new IO::File('<bar.txt') || die;
$colour = getfattr($fh, 'user.colour');
if (defined($colour))
{
    print $colour;
    delfattr($fh, 'user.colour');
}

DESCRIPTION

File::ExtAttr is a Perl module providing access to the extended attributes of files.

Extended attributes are metadata associated with a file. Examples are access control lists (ACLs) and other security parameters. But users can add their own key=value pairs.

Extended attributes may not be supported by your operating system. This module is aimed at Linux, Unix or Unix-like operating systems (e.g.: Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD).

Extended attributes may also not be supported by your filesystem or require special options to be enabled for a particular filesystem (e.g. "mount -o user_xattr /dev/hda1 /some/path").

NOTE: The API is not stable. It may change as part of supporting multiple operating systems.

METHODS

getfattr([$filename | $filehandle], $attrname)

Return the value of the attribute named $attrname for the file named $filename or referenced by the open filehandle $filehandle (which should be an IO::Handle).

If no attribute is found, returns undef. Otherwise gives a warning.

setfattr([$filename | $filehandle], $attrname, $attrval, [$flags])

Set the attribute named $attrname with the value $attrval for the file named $filename or referenced by the open filehandle $filehandle (which should be an IO::Handle).

$flags allows control of whether the attribute should be created or should replace an existing attribute's value. The value File::ExtAttr::XATTR_CREATE will cause setfattr to fail if the attribute already exists. The value File::ExtAttr::XATTR_REPLACE will cause setfattr to fail if the attribute does not already exist. If $flags is omitted, then the attribute will be created if necessary or silently replaced.

If the attribute could not be set, a warning is given.

delfattr([$filename | $filehandle], $attrname)

Delete the attribute named $attrname for the file named $filename or referenced by the open filehandle $filehandle (which should be an IO::Handle).

Returns true on success, otherwise false and a warning is given.

EXPORT

None by default.

You can request that getfattr, setfattr and delfattr be exported using the tag ":all".

Exportable constants

None

AUTHOR

Kevin M. Goess, <kgoess@ensenda.com>

Richard Dawe, <rich@phekda.gotadsl.co.uk>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.5 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

To install File::ExtAttr, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm File::ExtAttr

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install File::ExtAttr

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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