[PATCH 0/6][v4][RFC] NFSv3: implement extended attribute protocol (XATTR)

James Morris
2010-03-08T10:42:17Z

This is version 4 of the NFSv3 XATTR protocol extension patches, which
I've previously posted:

v1: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.file-systems/35475
v2: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.nfs/30539
v3: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.nfs/30971

Since the last version, I've incorporated feedback to add a new top-level
xattr namespace "nfsd", for storing client-origin xattrs on the server.
Support for the new namespace has been implemented on ext3 for testing
purposes.

Access to this namespace locally requires CAP_SYS_ADMIN, and it is not
accessible over the wire. Note that there is still potential for
confusion between local and remote users, e.g.

$ setfattr -n user.foo -v bar file.txt

on an NFS mounted fs will create an xattr on the server called
nfsd.user.foo, and then if the user logs in locally, they will not see the
xattr at all. Similarly, if they create xattrs locally, they will not be
exported via XATTR.

Comments welcome.

- James
--
James Morris
<jmorris@namei.org>