The ZFS, UFS, NFS, and TMPFS file systems are enhanced to include extended file attributes. Extended file attributes enable application developers to associate specific attributes to a file. For example, a developer of an application used to manage a windowing system might choose to associate a display icon with a file. Extended file attributes are logically represented as files within a hidden directory that are associated with the target file.
You can use the runat command to add attributes and execute shell commands in the extended attribute namespace. This namespace is a hidden attribute directory that is associated with a specified file.
To add attributes to a file, you must create the attributes file using the runat command.
$ runat filea cp /tmp/attrdata attr.1
Then, use the runat command to list the attributes of the file.
$ runat filea ls -l
For more information, see the runat(1) man page.
Many Oracle Solaris file system commands are modified to support extended file attributes, which enables you to query, copy, or find file attributes. For more information, see the specific man page for each file system command.