.\"
.\" Extended attributes system calls manual pages
.\"
.\" (C) Andreas Gruenbacher, February 2001
.\" (C) Silicon Graphics Inc, September 2001
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.TH REMOVEXATTR 2 "Extended Attributes" "Dec 2001" "System calls"
.SH NAME
removexattr, lremovexattr, fremovexattr \- remove an extended attribute
.SH SYNOPSIS
.fam C
.nf
.B #include <sys/types.h>
.B #include <attr/xattr.h>
.sp
.BI "int removexattr (const char\ *" path ", const char\ *" name );
.BI "int lremovexattr (const char\ *" path ", const char\ *" name );
.BI "int fremovexattr (int " filedes ", const char\ *" name );
.fi
.fam T
.SH DESCRIPTION
Extended attributes are
.IR name :\c
value pairs associated with inodes (files, directories, symlinks, etc).
They are extensions to the normal attributes which are associated
with all inodes in the system (i.e. the
.BR stat (2)
data).
A complete overview of extended attributes concepts can be found in
.BR attr (5).
.PP
.B removexattr
removes the extended attribute identified by
.I name
and associated with the given
.I path
in the filesystem.
.PP
.B lremovexattr
is identical to 
.BR 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.
.PP
.B fremovexattr
is identical to
.BR removexattr ,
only the extended attribute is removed from the open file pointed to by
.I filedes
(as returned by
.BR open (2))
in place of
.IR path .
.PP
An extended attribute name is a simple NULL-terminated string.
The
.I name
includes a namespace prefix \- there may be several, disjoint
namespaces associated with an individual inode.
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned.
On failure, \-1 is returned and
.I errno
is set appropriately.
.PP
If the named attribute does not exist,
.I errno
is set to ENOATTR.
.PP
If extended attributes are not supported by the filesystem, or are disabled,
.I errno
is set to ENOTSUP.
.PP
The errors documented for the
.BR stat (2)
system call are also applicable here.
.SH AUTHORS
Andreas Gruenbacher,
.RI < a.gruenbacher@bestbits.at >
and the SGI XFS development team,
.RI < linux-xfs@oss.sgi.com >.
Please send any bug reports or comments to these addresses.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR getfattr (1),
.BR setfattr (1),
.BR open (2),
.BR stat (2),
.BR setxattr (2),
.BR getxattr (2),
.BR listxattr (2),
and
.BR attr (5).