How to View Extended Attributes in Ubuntu Linux

This guide explains how to inspect metadata stored beyond standard permissions in Ubuntu. You will learn the specific command line tool required to display these attributes and how to install it if missing. By the end, you will know exactly how to retrieve extended file information.

The Command to Use

The command that reveals the extended attributes of a file in Ubuntu is getfattr. This tool gets file extended attributes, which are name-value pairs associated with inodes.

Installation

The utility is part of the attr package. If the command is not found, install it using the following terminal command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install attr

Basic Usage

To view the extended attributes of a specific file, use the -d flag to dump the values. Run the following syntax:

getfattr -d filename

Replace filename with the path to your target file. The output will display the file path followed by any associated attribute names and their values.

Common Options

• -d: Dump all extended attributes associated with the file.
• -n name: Only get the specified attribute.
• -m pattern: Only get attributes matching the regular expression pattern.
• -R: Recursively get attributes for directories and their contents.

Note on lsattr

Do not confuse getfattr with lsattr. The lsattr command lists file attributes on a second extended filesystem (like ext2/ext3/ext4), such as immutable or append-only flags, whereas getfattr handles generic extended attributes used by various applications and security contexts like SELinux or AppArmor.