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ls -la symbolics... what does that last symbol mean?

Fresh3 days ago
Mar 15, 202628432 views
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Problem

Possible Duplicate: what does the @ mean on the output of ls on os x terminal? when I type I get this familiar output... my question is about the file settings on the far left eg: I know that the first char 'd' means directory. and the next 9 chars I understand as well (permissions) but what is the…

Error Output

drwxr-xr-x+  38 kent  staff       1292 Nov  6 11:09 .
drwxr-xr-x    5 root  admin        170 Aug 14 14:11 ..
-rw-r--r--@   1 kent  staff         16 J…

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1 Fix

Canonical Fix
Unverified Fix
New Fix – Awaiting Verification

Understand the '@' Symbol in ls Output on macOS

Medium Risk

The '@' symbol in the output of the 'ls -la' command indicates that the file has extended attributes. Extended attributes are metadata associated with the file that can include information like access control lists (ACLs) or other file-specific data. This is specific to macOS and some other Unix-like systems.

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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 filename
  2. 2

    View Access Control Lists (ACLs)

    If you want to see the ACLs associated with the file, use the 'ls -le' command. This will show you the permissions along with any ACLs that are set.

    bash
    ls -le filename
  3. 3

    Remove Extended Attributes (if necessary)

    If you determine that the extended attributes are not needed, you can remove them using the 'xattr -d' command followed by the attribute name. Be cautious, as this may affect file behavior.

    bash
    xattr -d com.apple.metadata:kMDItemUserTags filename
  4. 4

    Verify Changes

    After making changes to the extended attributes or ACLs, run 'ls -la' again to confirm that the '@' symbol is no longer present, indicating that there are no extended attributes.

    bash
    ls -la filename

Validation

To confirm the fix worked, ensure that the '@' symbol no longer appears in the output of 'ls -la' for the modified file. Additionally, verify that the file functions as expected without the extended attributes.

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Environment