REMOVEXATTR(2)              BSD System Calls Manual             REMOVEXATTR(2)

NAME
     removexattr, fremovexattr -- remove an extended attribute value

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/xattr.h>

     int
     removexattr(const char *path, const char *name, int options);

     int
     fremovexattr(int fd, const char *name, int options);

DESCRIPTION
     Extended attributes extend the basic attributes associated with files and
     directories in the file system.  They are stored as name:data pairs asso-
     ciated with file system objects (files, directories, symlinks, etc).

     removexattr() deletes the extended attribute name associated with path.

     An extended attribute's name is a simple NULL-terminated UTF-8 string.
     Options is a bit mask specifying various options:

     XATTR_NOFOLLOW  do not follow symbolic links.  Normally, removexattr()
                     acts on the target of path if it is a symbolic link.
                     With this option, removexattr() will act on the link
                     itself.

     XATTR_SHOWCOMPRESSION
                     removexattr() and fremovexattr() will remove HFS Plus
                     Compression extended attribute name (if present) for the
                     file referred to by path or fd.

     fremovexattr() is identical to removexattr(), except that it removes an
     extended attribute from an open file referenced by file descriptor fd.

RETURN VALUES
     On success, 0 is returned.  On failure, -1 is returned and the global
     variable errno is set as follows.

ERRORS
     [ENOATTR]          The specified extended attribute does not exist.

     [ENOTSUP]          The file system does not support extended attributes
                        or has the feature disabled.

     [EROFS]            The file system is mounted read-only.

     [EPERM]            This type of object does not support extended
                        attributes.

     [EINVAL]           name or options is invalid.  name must be valid UTF-8
                        options must make sense.

     [ENOTDIR]          A component of the path 's prefix is not a directory.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]     Name exceeded XATTR_MAXNAMELEN UTF-8 bytes, or a com-
                        ponent of path exceeded NAME_MAX characters, or the
                        entire path exceeded PATH_MAX characters.

     [EACCES]           Search permission is denied for a component path or
                        permission to remove the attribute is denied.

     [ELOOP]            Too many symbolic links were encountered in path.

     [EFAULT]           path or name points to an invalid address.

     [EIO]              An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
                        the file system.

SEE ALSO
     getxattr(2), listxattr(2), setxattr(2)

HISTORY
     removexattr() and fremovexattr() first appeared in Mac OS X 10.4.

Mac OS X                         Oct 19, 2004                         Mac OS X