samba - Sep 2009 - doc & examples bug regarding 'xattr' special switch need

This may already be fixed, but various places talk about the need
for a 'user_xattr' switch on mounts to use extended attributes.

I've never known 'xfs' to have such a switch -- if they are enabled
in the kernel, they just work -- I tried it.

I also tried adding the switch and verified it is not an accepted
switch for XFS.   Is the documentation referring to some newer
filesystem that has incompatible options (regarding external 
attributes)?   

I'm running a stock SuSE kernel and they are enabled by default (and
fully available to non-root users).

Linda Walsh wrote:
> This may already be fixed, but various places talk about the need
> for a 'user_xattr' switch on mounts to use extended attributes.
> 
> I've never known 'xfs' to have such a switch -- if they are
enabled
> in the kernel, they just work -- I tried it.
> 
> I also tried adding the switch and verified it is not an accepted
> switch for XFS.   Is the documentation referring to some newer
> filesystem that has incompatible options (regarding external 
> attributes)?   
> 
> I'm running a stock SuSE kernel and they are enabled by default (and
> fully available to non-root users).  
> 
Another bit of minor confusion about this is that RedHat and CentOS (and
probably
Fedora and others) enable them by default too, without the switch in fstab.  I
think
it is because they are used by SElinux.

However, if you add another mountpoint and filesystem later (after
installation),
then they are not enabled on the new filesystem until you add the switch at
mount
time.  This results in the confusing situation of two mountpoints looking the
same in
fstab, but one having xattrs enabled and the other not.

My observations above are for ext3 filesystems.

I think the best advice may be to do a simple test on your filesystem to see if
you
can set and read extended attributes.  If you can, you are good to go.  If not,
add
the switch in fstab.

-- 
Mark Nienberg
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