FG

What does the @ mean in the Mac OS X file permissions?

Freshabout 19 hours ago
Mar 15, 20263449 views
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Problem

Possible Duplicates: what is the @ after the permissions for in ls -l on a mac? ls -la symbolics… what does that last symbol mean? Running a "ls -l" on a folder I get : What does the '@' mean?

Error Output

....
-rwxrwxr-x@ 1 me  staff   466676 Mar  6 05:38 pgsql.so  
-rwxrwxr-x@ 1 me  staff   709156 Mar  6 05:38 xcache.so  
-rw-r--r--  1 me  staff      …

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1 Fix

Canonical Fix
Unverified Fix
New Fix – Awaiting Verification

Understand and Manage Extended Attributes in Mac OS X File Permissions

Medium Risk

The '@' symbol in the output of 'ls -l' indicates that the file has extended attributes associated with it. Extended attributes are metadata that provide additional information about the file, such as security settings or custom attributes. This feature is specific to file systems like HFS+ and APFS used by Mac OS X.

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  1. 1

    Check Extended Attributes

    Use the 'xattr' command to list the extended attributes of the file. This will help you understand what additional metadata is associated with the file.

    bash
    xattr -l pgsql.so
  2. 2

    Remove Unnecessary Extended Attributes

    If you find that the extended attributes are not needed, you can remove them using the 'xattr' command. Be cautious, as this might affect the file's behavior.

    bash
    xattr -c pgsql.so
  3. 3

    Verify Permissions After Changes

    After modifying the extended attributes, check the file permissions again using 'ls -l' to confirm that the '@' symbol is no longer present if you removed all attributes.

    bash
    ls -l pgsql.so
  4. 4

    Document Changes

    Keep a record of any changes made to the file's extended attributes for future reference, especially if the file is part of a larger application or system.

Validation

To confirm the fix worked, re-run 'ls -l' on the file and ensure that the '@' symbol no longer appears. Additionally, verify that the file functions as expected after any attribute modifications.

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Environment