{"id":6558,"date":"2018-09-05T21:28:36","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T17:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.howtoforge.com\/linux-lsattr-command\/"},"modified":"2018-09-05T21:28:36","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T17:28:36","slug":"linux-lsattr-command-tutorial-for-beginners-with-examples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/linux-lsattr-command-tutorial-for-beginners-with-examples\/","title":{"rendered":"Linux lsattr Command Tutorial for Beginners (with Examples)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently discussed chattr<\/a>, a command that you can use to change file attributes on a Linux file system. To list file attributes, there’s a separate command, dubbed lsattr<\/strong>. In this tutorial, we will discuss this tool using some easy to understand examples.<\/p>\n

But before we do that, it’s worth mentioning that all examples mentioned in this article have been tested on an Ubuntu 18.04 LTS machine.<\/p>\n

Linux lsattr command<\/h2>\n

As already mentioned in the introduction part above, the lsattr command in Linux lists file attributes on stdout. Following is its syntax:<\/p>\n

lsattr [ -RVadlpv ] [ files…\u00a0 ]<\/p>\n

Here’s how the tool’s man page defines it:<\/p>\n

 lsattr lists the file attributes on a second extended file system.<\/pre>\n
Following are some Q&A-styled examples that should give you a good idea on how the command works.<\/p>\n
Q1. How to use lsattr command?<\/h2>\n
Basic usage is quite simple. Just execute ‘lsattr’ without any command line options. Of course, you need to provide a file name as input.<\/p>\n
Here’s an example:<\/p>\n
lsattr file1.txt<\/p>\n
And here’s the output:<\/p>\n
--------------e--- file1.txt<\/pre>\n
In addition to ‘e’ (in the output above), there can be several other letters in the output. Following excerpt (taken from chattr man page) should give you a better idea:<\/p>\n
 The\u00a0 letters 'aAcCdDeijPsStTu' select the new attributes for the files:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 append only (a), no atime updates (A), compressed (c), no copy on write\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (C), no dump (d), synchronous directory updates (D), extent format (e),\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 immutable (i), data journalling\u00a0 (j),\u00a0 project\u00a0 hierarchy\u00a0 (P),\u00a0 secure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 deletion\u00a0 (s),\u00a0 synchronous\u00a0 updates\u00a0 (S),\u00a0 no tail-merging (t), top of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 directory hierarchy (T), and undeletable (u).
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The following attributes are read-only, and may be listed by\u00a0 lsattr(1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 but\u00a0 not\u00a0 modified by chattr: encrypted (E), indexed directory (I), and\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 inline data (N).<\/p><\/pre>\n
Q2. How to make lsattr recursively work on directories?<\/h2>\n
This can be done using the -R command line option.<\/p>\n
For example:<\/p>\n
lsattr -R Downloads\/HTF-review\/<\/p>\n
Here’s the output the above command produced on my system:<\/p>\n
\"How<\/a><\/p>\n
Note that if you want to display all files in directories (including .) use the -a command line option.<\/p>\n
Q3. How to make lsattr treat directories as normal files?<\/h2>\n
By default, if you provide a directory name\/path as input to lsattr, it produces information related to files contained in that directory.<\/p>\n
\"How<\/a><\/p>\n
However, if you want, you can force lsattr to treat directory as a file, and produce file attribute information for it. This you can do using the -d command line option.<\/p>\n
\"lsattr<\/a><\/p>\n
Q4. How to make lsattr list file’s project and version number?<\/h2>\n
This can be done using the -p and -v command line options. Following screenshot shows both these options in action:<\/p>\n
\"How<\/a><\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Agreed, lsattr might not fall into the category of most used commands, but if you use chattr, then it’s a must-know command. Here, in this tutorial, we have discussed the majority of the command line options it offers. To learn more about the lsattr command, head to its man page<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n\"Himanshu <\/p>\n
About Himanshu Arora<\/strong><\/p>\n
Himanshu Arora has been working on Linux since 2007. He carries professional experience in system level programming, networking protocols, and command line. In addition to HowtoForge, Himanshu’s work has also been featured in some of world’s other leading publications including Computerworld, IBM DeveloperWorks, and Linux Journal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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We recently discussed chattr, a command that you can use to change file attributes on a Linux file system. To list file attributes, there’s a separate command, dubbed lsattr. In this tutorial, we will discuss this tool using some easy to understand examples. But before we do that, it’s worth mentioning that all examples mentioned …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-36"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}