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Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 19:28:15 -0400
From: "Ted Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
To: Sam Gandhi <samgandhi9@gmail.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Can someone explain s_xattr field in the superblock?
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On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 08:52:41AM -0700, Sam Gandhi wrote:
> 
> I have seen some file systems like jffs2/ext4 etc setup the s_xattr
> field in the superblock structure.
> But there are files systems that  do not initialize s_xattr field in
> the superblock.
> 
> Can someone kindly explain what functionality  does s_xattr on super
> block provides? What kinds of things file system wouldn't be able to
> do if the superblock doesn't have this initialized?

It provides support for extended attributes, which is often
abbreviated as (not surpisingly) xattr.  Some file systems don't
support extended attributes, so they don't need to setup s_xattr.

For more information, read the attr(5) man page: "man 5 attr".

    	 	      	       	       	   - Ted
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