attr_remove(3)

attr_remove3

Remove a user attribute of a filesystem object

C synopsis

#include <attr/attributes.h>

int attr_remove (const char *path, const char *attrname, int flags);

int attr_removef (int fd, const char *attrname, int flags);

Overview

The attr_remove and attr_removef functions provide a way to remove previously created attributes from filesystem objects.

Path points to a path name for a filesystem object, and fd refers to the file descriptor associated with a file. If the attribute attrname exists, the attribute name and value will be removed from the filesystem object. The flags argument can contain the following symbols bitwise OR'ed together:

ATTR_ROOT

Look for attrname in the root address space, not in the user address space. (limited to use by super-user only)

ATTR_DONTFOLLOW

Do not follow symbolic links when resolving a path on an attr_remove function call. The default is to follow symbolic links.

attr_remove will fail if one or more of the following are true:

[ENOATTR]

The attribute name given is not associated with the indicated filesystem object.

[ENOENT]

The named file does not exist.

[EPERM]

The effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and the effective user ID is not super-user.

[ENOTDIR]

A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

[EACCES]

Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.

[EINVAL]

A bit was set in the flag argument that is not defined for this system call.

[EFAULT]

Path points outside the allocated address space of the process.

[ELOOP]

A path name lookup involved too many symbolic links.

[ENAMETOOLONG]

The length of path exceeds {MAXPATHLEN}, or a pathname component is longer than {MAXNAMELEN}.

attr_removef will fail if:

[ENOATTR]

The attribute name given is not associated with the indicated filesystem object.

[EINVAL]

A bit was set in the flag argument that is not defined for this system call, or fd refers to a socket, not a file.

[EFAULT]

Attrname points outside the allocated address space of the process.

[EBADF]

Fd does not refer to a valid descriptor.

Diagnostics

On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

Releases

13 releases since Debian 3.0 (Woody); the text changed 8 times.

  1. 3.0
  2. 3.1
  3. 4.0–5.0
  4. 6.0–9
  5. 10
  6. 11
  7. 12
  8. 13
  9. Arch

From attr 2.6.0-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.