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CHATTR(1)                            General Commands Manual                            CHATTR(1)



NAME
       chattr - change file attributes on a Linux file system

SYNOPSIS
       chattr [ -RVf ] [ -v version ] [ mode ] files...

DESCRIPTION
       chattr changes the file attributes on a Linux file system.

       The format of a symbolic mode is +-=[aAcCdDeijsStTu].

       The  operator '+' causes the selected attributes to be added to the existing attributes of
       the files; '-' causes them to be removed; and '=' causes them to be  the  only  attributes
       that the files have.

       The  letters 'aAcCdDeijsStTu' select the new attributes for the files: append only (a), no
       atime updates (A), compressed (c), no copy on write (C), no dump (d),  synchronous  direc‐
       tory  updates (D), extent format (e), immutable (i), data journalling (j), secure deletion
       (s), synchronous updates (S), no tail-merging (t), top of  directory  hierarchy  (T),  and
       undeletable (u).

       The following attributes are read-only, and may be listed by lsattr(1) but not modified by
       chattr: compression error (E), huge file (h), indexed directory (I), inline data (N), com‐
       pression raw access (X), and compressed dirty file (Z).

       Not  all  flags are supported or utilized by all filesystems; refer to filesystem-specific
       man pages such as btrfs(5), ext4(5), and xfs(5) for more filesystem-specific details.

OPTIONS
       -R     Recursively change attributes of directories and their contents.

       -V     Be verbose with chattr's output and print the program version.

       -f     Suppress most error messages.

       -v version
              Set the file's version/generation number.

ATTRIBUTES
       A file with the 'a' attribute set can only be open in append mode for writing.   Only  the
       superuser or a process possessing the CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE capability can set or clear this
       attribute.

       When a file with the 'A' attribute set is accessed, its  atime  record  is  not  modified.
       This avoids a certain amount of disk I/O for laptop systems.

       A  file  with the 'c' attribute set is automatically compressed on the disk by the kernel.
       A read from this file returns uncompressed data.  A write to  this  file  compresses  data
       before  storing them on the disk.  Note: please make sure to read the bugs and limitations
       section at the end of this document.

       A file with the 'C' attribute set will not be subject to copy-on-write updates.  This flag
       is  only supported on file systems which perform copy-on-write.  (Note: For btrfs, the 'C'
       flag should be set on new or empty files.  If it is set on a file which already  has  data
       blocks, it is undefined when the blocks assigned to the file will be fully stable.  If the
       'C' flag is set on a directory, it will have no effect on the  directory,  but  new  files
       created in that directory will the No_COW attribute.)

       A  file with the 'd' attribute set is not candidate for backup when the dump(8) program is
       run.

       When a directory with the 'D' attribute set is modified,  the  changes  are  written  syn‐
       chronously on the disk; this is equivalent to the 'dirsync' mount option applied to a sub‐
       set of the files.

       The 'e' attribute indicates that the file is using extents for mapping the blocks on disk.
       It may not be removed using chattr(1).

       The  'E' attribute is used by the experimental compression patches to indicate that a com‐
       pressed file has a compression error.  It  may  not  be  set  or  reset  using  chattr(1),
       although it can be displayed by lsattr(1).

       The  'h'  attribute  indicates  the  file is storing its blocks in units of the filesystem
       blocksize instead of in units of sectors, and means that the file is (or at one time  was)
       larger than 2TB.  It may not be set or reset using chattr(1), although it can be displayed
       by lsattr(1).

       A file with the 'i' attribute cannot be modified: it cannot be deleted or renamed, no link
       can be created to this file and no data can be written to the file.  Only the superuser or
       a process possessing the CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE capability can set or clear this attribute.

       The 'I' attribute is used by the htree code to indicate that a directory is being  indexed
       using  hashed  trees.  It may not be set or reset using chattr(1), although it can be dis‐
       played by lsattr(1).

       A file with the 'j' attribute has all of its data written to  the  ext3  or  ext4  journal
       before  being  written  to  the  file  itself,  if  the  filesystem  is  mounted  with the
       "data=ordered" or "data=writeback" options.  When  the  filesystem  is  mounted  with  the
       "data=journal"  option  all  file  data  is  already  journalled and this attribute has no
       effect.  Only the superuser or a process possessing the  CAP_SYS_RESOURCE  capability  can
       set or clear this attribute.

       A  file  with the 'N' attribute set indicates that the file has data stored inline, within
       the inode itself. It may not be set or reset using chattr(1), although it can be displayed
       by lsattr(1).

       When  a file with the 's' attribute set is deleted, its blocks are zeroed and written back
       to the disk.  Note: please make sure to read the bugs and limitations section at  the  end
       of this document.

       When  a file with the 'S' attribute set is modified, the changes are written synchronously
       on the disk; this is equivalent to the 'sync' mount option applied  to  a  subset  of  the
       files.

       A  file  with  the  't' attribute will not have a partial block fragment at the end of the
       file merged with other files (for those filesystems which support tail-merging).  This  is
       necessary  for  applications  such  as  LILO which read the filesystem directly, and which
       don't understand tail-merged files.  Note: As of this writing, the ext2 or  ext3  filesys‐
       tems do not (yet, except in very experimental patches) support tail-merging.

       A  directory  with the 'T' attribute will be deemed to be the top of directory hierarchies
       for the purposes of the Orlov block allocator.  This is a hint to the block allocator used
       by  ext3  and  ext4 that the subdirectories under this directory are not related, and thus
       should be spread apart for allocation purposes.   For example it is a very  good  idea  to
       set the 'T' attribute on the /home directory, so that /home/john and /home/mary are placed
       into separate block groups.  For directories where this attribute is not  set,  the  Orlov
       block allocator will try to group subdirectories closer together where possible.

       When  a  file  with the 'u' attribute set is deleted, its contents are saved.  This allows
       the user to ask for its undeletion.  Note: please make sure to read the bugs  and  limita‐
       tions section at the end of this document.

       The 'X' attribute is used by the experimental compression patches to indicate that the raw
       contents of a compressed file can be accessed directly.  It currently may not  be  set  or
       reset using chattr(1), although it can be displayed by lsattr(1).

       The 'Z' attribute is used by the experimental compression patches to indicate a compressed
       file is dirty.  It may not be set or reset using chattr(1), although it can  be  displayed
       by lsattr(1).

AUTHOR
       chattr  was  written by Remy Card <Remy.Card AT linux.org>.  It is currently being maintained
       by Theodore Ts'o <tytso AT alum.edu>.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
       The 'c', 's',  and 'u' attributes are not honored by the ext2, ext3, and ext4  filesystems
       as implemented in the current mainline Linux kernels.

       The 'j' option is only useful if the filesystem is mounted as ext3 or ext4.

       The 'D' option is only useful on Linux kernel 2.5.19 and later.

AVAILABILITY
       chattr  is  part  of  the e2fsprogs package and is available from http://e2fsprogs.source‐
       forge.net.

SEE ALSO
       lsattr(1), btrfs(5), ext4(5), xfs(5).



E2fsprogs version 1.42.12                  August 2014                                  CHATTR(1)


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