File attributes puzzle

[Anne Wilson]

I have a small text file that I want to ensure cannot be accidentally deleted, 
so I ran

chattr -i /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt

(as root, of course).  Running lsattr against the same file produced

-------------e- /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt

'i' doesn't show in ls -l filename, either.  I haven't come across 'e' before.  
What is it, and is my file immutable or not?

Anne

[Michal Hlavinka]

On Thursday, March 31, 2011 09:27:00 Anne Wilson wrote:
> I have a small text file that I want to ensure cannot be accidentally deleted, 
> so I ran
>
> chattr -i /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt

If you want to add an attribute you have to use +<attribute> , because -i means "remove". 
See man chattr
so you need: chattr +i /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt
> (as root, of course).  Running lsattr against the same file produced
>
> -------------e- /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt
>
> 'i' doesn't show in ls -l filename, either.  I haven't come across 'e' before.  
> What is it, and is my file immutable or not?

What is it: man chattr: The 'e' attribute indicates that the file is using 
extents for mapping the blocks on disk.  It may not be removed using chattr(1).

Is your file immutable: no, it isn't

Michal

[Giuliano Colla]

Anne Wilson ha scritto:
> I have a small text file that I want to ensure cannot be accidentally deleted, 
> so I ran
>
> chattr -i /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt
>
> (as root, of course).  Running lsattr against the same file produced
>
> -------------e- /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt
>
> 'i' doesn't show in ls -l filename, either.  I haven't come across 'e' before.  
> What is it, and is my file immutable or not?
>
> Anne

1) You must be superuser (i.e. login as root, or use /su/) in order to 
have chattr set the /i /attribute/.
2) -i /*removes* the i attribute, doesn't set it. From chattr man page, 
the rule is: - sign removes, + sign adds = sign makes it the only 
attribute. You should type:

chatttr +i /home/anne/etc..

then with lsattr you'll see something like:
----i-------- file.txt

Regards,

Giuliano

[Anne Wilson]

On Thursday 31 March 2011 10:26:10 Giuliano Colla wrote:
> Anne Wilson ha scritto:
> > I have a small text file that I want to ensure cannot be accidentally
> > deleted, so I ran
> >
> > chattr -i /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt
> >
> > (as root, of course).  Running lsattr against the same file produced
> >
> > -------------e- /home/anne/WebPages/UserBase/filename.txt
> >
> > 'i' doesn't show in ls -l filename, either.  I haven't come across 'e'
> > before. What is it, and is my file immutable or not?
> >
> > Anne
> You must be superuser (i.e. login as root, or use /su/) in order to
>
> have chattr set the /i /attribute/.
> 2) -i /*removes* the i attribute, doesn't set it. From chattr man page,
> the rule is: - sign removes, + sign adds = sign makes it the only
> attribute. You should type:
>
> chatttr +i /home/anne/etc..
>
> then with lsattr you'll see something like:
> ----i-------- file.txt

Thanks, both of you.  Definitely a Duh! moment.  Put it down to senility ;-)

Anne