![Darrick J. Wong](/assets/img/avatar_default.png)
Move the ext4 data structures book to Documentation/filesystems/ext4/ since the administrative information moved elsewhere. Signed-off-by: Darrick J. Wong <darrick.wong@oracle.com> Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
192 lines
6.1 KiB
ReStructuredText
192 lines
6.1 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
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Extended Attributes
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-------------------
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Extended attributes (xattrs) are typically stored in a separate data
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block on the disk and referenced from inodes via ``inode.i_file_acl*``.
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The first use of extended attributes seems to have been for storing file
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ACLs and other security data (selinux). With the ``user_xattr`` mount
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option it is possible for users to store extended attributes so long as
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all attribute names begin with “user”; this restriction seems to have
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disappeared as of Linux 3.0.
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There are two places where extended attributes can be found. The first
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place is between the end of each inode entry and the beginning of the
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next inode entry. For example, if inode.i\_extra\_isize = 28 and
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sb.inode\_size = 256, then there are 256 - (128 + 28) = 100 bytes
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available for in-inode extended attribute storage. The second place
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where extended attributes can be found is in the block pointed to by
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``inode.i_file_acl``. As of Linux 3.11, it is not possible for this
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block to contain a pointer to a second extended attribute block (or even
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the remaining blocks of a cluster). In theory it is possible for each
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attribute's value to be stored in a separate data block, though as of
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Linux 3.11 the code does not permit this.
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Keys are generally assumed to be ASCIIZ strings, whereas values can be
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strings or binary data.
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Extended attributes, when stored after the inode, have a header
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``ext4_xattr_ibody_header`` that is 4 bytes long:
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.. list-table::
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:widths: 8 8 24 40
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:header-rows: 1
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* - Offset
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- Type
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- Name
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- Description
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* - 0x0
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- \_\_le32
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- h\_magic
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- Magic number for identification, 0xEA020000. This value is set by the
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Linux driver, though e2fsprogs doesn't seem to check it(?)
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The beginning of an extended attribute block is in
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``struct ext4_xattr_header``, which is 32 bytes long:
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.. list-table::
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:widths: 8 8 24 40
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:header-rows: 1
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* - Offset
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- Type
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- Name
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- Description
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* - 0x0
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- \_\_le32
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- h\_magic
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- Magic number for identification, 0xEA020000.
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* - 0x4
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- \_\_le32
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- h\_refcount
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- Reference count.
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* - 0x8
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- \_\_le32
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- h\_blocks
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- Number of disk blocks used.
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* - 0xC
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- \_\_le32
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- h\_hash
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- Hash value of all attributes.
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* - 0x10
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- \_\_le32
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- h\_checksum
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- Checksum of the extended attribute block.
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* - 0x14
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- \_\_u32
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- h\_reserved[2]
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- Zero.
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The checksum is calculated against the FS UUID, the 64-bit block number
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of the extended attribute block, and the entire block (header +
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entries).
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Following the ``struct ext4_xattr_header`` or
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``struct ext4_xattr_ibody_header`` is an array of
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``struct ext4_xattr_entry``; each of these entries is at least 16 bytes
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long. When stored in an external block, the ``struct ext4_xattr_entry``
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entries must be stored in sorted order. The sort order is
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``e_name_index``, then ``e_name_len``, and finally ``e_name``.
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Attributes stored inside an inode do not need be stored in sorted order.
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.. list-table::
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:widths: 8 8 24 40
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:header-rows: 1
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* - Offset
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- Type
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- Name
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- Description
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* - 0x0
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- \_\_u8
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- e\_name\_len
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- Length of name.
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* - 0x1
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- \_\_u8
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- e\_name\_index
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- Attribute name index. There is a discussion of this below.
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* - 0x2
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- \_\_le16
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- e\_value\_offs
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- Location of this attribute's value on the disk block where it is stored.
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Multiple attributes can share the same value. For an inode attribute
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this value is relative to the start of the first entry; for a block this
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value is relative to the start of the block (i.e. the header).
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* - 0x4
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- \_\_le32
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- e\_value\_inum
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- The inode where the value is stored. Zero indicates the value is in the
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same block as this entry. This field is only used if the
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INCOMPAT\_EA\_INODE feature is enabled.
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* - 0x8
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- \_\_le32
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- e\_value\_size
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- Length of attribute value.
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* - 0xC
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- \_\_le32
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- e\_hash
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- Hash value of attribute name and attribute value. The kernel doesn't
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update the hash for in-inode attributes, so for that case this value
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must be zero, because e2fsck validates any non-zero hash regardless of
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where the xattr lives.
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* - 0x10
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- char
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- e\_name[e\_name\_len]
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- Attribute name. Does not include trailing NULL.
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Attribute values can follow the end of the entry table. There appears to
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be a requirement that they be aligned to 4-byte boundaries. The values
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are stored starting at the end of the block and grow towards the
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xattr\_header/xattr\_entry table. When the two collide, the overflow is
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put into a separate disk block. If the disk block fills up, the
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filesystem returns -ENOSPC.
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The first four fields of the ``ext4_xattr_entry`` are set to zero to
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mark the end of the key list.
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Attribute Name Indices
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Logically speaking, extended attributes are a series of key=value pairs.
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The keys are assumed to be NULL-terminated strings. To reduce the amount
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of on-disk space that the keys consume, the beginning of the key string
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is matched against the attribute name index. If a match is found, the
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attribute name index field is set, and matching string is removed from
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the key name. Here is a map of name index values to key prefixes:
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.. list-table::
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:widths: 16 64
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:header-rows: 1
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* - Name Index
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- Key Prefix
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* - 0
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- (no prefix)
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* - 1
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- “user.”
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* - 2
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- “system.posix\_acl\_access”
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* - 3
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- “system.posix\_acl\_default”
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* - 4
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- “trusted.”
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* - 6
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- “security.”
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* - 7
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- “system.” (inline\_data only?)
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* - 8
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- “system.richacl” (SuSE kernels only?)
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For example, if the attribute key is “user.fubar”, the attribute name
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index is set to 1 and the “fubar” name is recorded on disk.
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POSIX ACLs
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~~~~~~~~~~
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POSIX ACLs are stored in a reduced version of the Linux kernel (and
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libacl's) internal ACL format. The key difference is that the version
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number is different (1) and the ``e_id`` field is only stored for named
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user and group ACLs.
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