diff -r 9c1d0c5ed599 -r d4f401b5f90c relpipe-data/examples-filesystem-xattr.xml --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/relpipe-data/examples-filesystem-xattr.xml Tue Feb 05 19:18:28 2019 +0100 @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ + + + Reading extended attributes using relpipe-in-filesystem + accessing xattr of given files e.g. xdg.origin.url + 01300 + + + + +

+ Extended attributes (xattr) are additional key=value pairs that can be attached to our files. + They are not stored inside the files, but on the filesystem. + Thus they are independent of particular file format (which might not support metadata) + and we can use them e.g. for tagging, cataloguing or adding some notes to our files. + Some tools like GNU Wget use extended attributes to store metadata like the original URL from which the file was downloaded. +

+ + + +

And now we know, where the files on our disk came from:

+ +

+ If we like the BeOS/Haiku style, we can create empty files with some attributes attached and use our filesystem as a simple database + and query it using relational tools. + It will lack indexing, but for basic scenarios like address book it will be fast enough + and we can feel a bit of BeOS/Haiku atmosphere in our contemporary GNU/Linux systems. + But be careful with that because some editors delete and recreate files while saving them, which destroys the xattrs. + Tools like rsync or tar with --xattrs option will backup our attributes securely. +

+ + + + +